About love and relationship stuff
by BlackArticFox
Summary: One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be. Chapter 9: Rei has been trying to keep up with Nagisa for over a year, it's time for him to teach a senior a lesson or two about how to handle his own firecracker. (Reigisa/SouMomo). Read A/N to know the rest of the couples I'll be using. (Cover image not mine)
1. About shota boyfriends…

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite thy might be.

**Chapter summary: **Rin and Rei can easily relate to one-another when it comes to their lovers.

**Chapter title:**About shota boyfriends…

**Couples: **Rintori/Reigisa

**A/N: **OK so… first Free! Story from me, yay? Anyway, so this became, easily, one of my favorite series and I thought I could give a try to something light regarding my favorite couples of the series so I will give you a list of the couples I'll use and I won't be changing them but I CAN play around a bit without breaking them, you might see what I mean in future chapters.

For this fic I will be using established relationships and the chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka**;** but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters I have already planned but I haven't typed anything more. This will stay light, kind of fluffy and also somewhat silly but I hope you enjoy it regardless.

The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: **MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou**.

Also I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.

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**Chapter 1: About shota boyfriends…**

"Rin-san!" Rei called waving a hand to said redhead who smiled and waved back as the former trotted up to him the few feet left between them; Rin had asked Rei if he wanted to hang out with him that day since they were both free and he had acceded "I'm not late, am I?"

"Nah, I just know how much of a punctuality freak you are so I got here a bit earlier myself." Rin answered with a wave of his hand, amused by the small frown on Rei's face at the term he used for him "Been waiting for about five minutes only though."

"Well, I appreciate the consideration… I think." The bespectacled swimmer said uncertainly before changing the topic "What were you planning on doing today?"

"I need to get a couple of kickboards for the team, two of our members _'accidentally'_ broke them during the last practice and I remembered you mentioning you wanted new googles after the last joint practice so I thought we could go get that from the sports store and then get lunch or something." Rin proposed already walking in the direction of the sports store, Rei catching up to him easily.

"How did they even break the kickboards?" Rei had seen the equipment last time his team had joint practice at Samezuka and it looked in perfectly good shape and rather new, however, the way his fellow male had said _"accidentally" _already had him suspecting it was anything but. Rin let out a 'tsk' which sounded less annoyed than tired.

"As it turns out, first years have a lot of energy and they couldn't find a better way to burn it off than practicing their karate chops on them." The red-eyed teen said, remembering Momo's victory cries after breaking both kickboards, one after the other, and mocking a fellow first-grader who hadn't been able to break even one "But I fixed their training regimen so I doubt it will happen again."

"That should suffice." Rei nodded once, knowing said "fixing" was actually more of a punishment than it was a mere adjustment, if Rin's satisfied smirk had anything to say about it.

"What about you?" Rin asked raising an eyebrow to the other male "I thought you had all your gear in perfect condition."

"I _did_ have it in perfect condition." The questioned swimmer sounded a bit exasperated, his hand automatically went to push up his glasses on his nose even though it wasn't really necessary "But Nagisa-kun thought it would be funny to draw on my googles with permanent marker to make them _'more beautiful'_, in his words, and, when I tried to clean the lenses, I ended up scratching them since the tint was harder to erase than I initially thought so I need a replacement for them, I still have my spare ones but I'd rather have a new pair for emergencies."

"Seriously? Nagisa did that?" Rin asked with a snort and a shake of his head "He always finds new ways to mess with you, doesn't he?"

"He can be rather creative when he wants to." Rei sighed but smiled softly "But he knows I can't stay mad at him for long and takes advantage of that."

"I know the feeling." The redhead also smiled looking up at the sky as they kept walking "I can't stay mad at Ai for long either, not that he makes me mad often but he knows how to work his charm when he wants something from me."

"Maybe that's why they hang out together more often lately," The younger of the two suggested, a hand on his chin as if thinking about the possibility "They get together and talk about how they can keep us wrapped around their finger."

"Well, I do know for a fact that Ai is tricked into hanging out with Nagisa because Nagisa just knows how to trick people and Ai is much too innocent not to fall into his traps." Rin said also with a thoughtful expression "But he ends up not hating the day, maybe because they do actually give pointers to one another about how to have us at their beck and call; maybe, they will try to pull something on us when they get back from their outing tonight."

"I'm not sure about you but… Nagisa-kun always brings something back for me; small details, and then he asks to spend the night because he had 'such a long day' and is 'too tired to get back to his place'; I will tell him he has to go back and that I will walk him but he will pout and whine and widen his eyes and I will end up lending him my house phone so he can call his parents and let them know he will sleep over at my place, _again_." The blue-haired swimmer sighed, his shoulders sagging at the thought and sounding kind of tired, the male next to him let out a chuckle.

"Well, Ai will be back and complain about Nagisa for a good ten minutes before showing me whatever he got in the trip, even though he had planned on not getting anything, and also giving me whatever he decided to get me as present and then he will tell me he saw some things I might like so we should go see them because it would be fun; I'll tease him a bit telling him that he did enjoy spending time with Nagisa then and Ai will admit it could have been much worse and ask again if we can go, I'll tell him I'm not sure and then he will give me this puppy eyes and a long 'pleeaaase' and… and I will be going to the mall tomorrow." Rin finished with a sigh of his own "They're just a couple of little shits, aren't they?"

"Language, Rin-san!" Rei chastised but it seemed to have no effect as he received a shrug as a reply "However, it almost seems as if they do share the same convincing methods."

The pair kept mussing about the possibility until they got to the sports store, it would be a funny idea; to have those two plotting how to keep their respective boyfriends right where they wanted them.

"It's something a little odd to think about, though." Rin finally broke the silence between them as they made their way to the googles so Rei could look through their selection first "They are so different I can't imagine them working together that easily."

"Maybe so, I mean, Nagisa-kun has a devious side I couldn't possibly picture Nitori-kun having." Rei agreed, going straight to the same brand of googles he preferred –picked after an exhaustive research on every single brand the store offered- "But you can't deny they do have a similar air to them after first meeting them."

"Ai may not be devious but he is no white angel either." The sharp-toothed male commented remembering the silver-haired boy's porn books and some of the things that happened whenever they got intimate but his usual way of acting wasn't really devious in any case "But I see your point; you take a look at them and you see a small body with a baby face and huge bright eyes."

"Their appearance instantly makes you think they must be sweet, childish and naïve." Rei picked up a pair of googles, inspected them and then nodded to himself in satisfaction with his choice "Let's go find your kickboards."

The butterfly swimmers walked towards the swimming boards, Rin making a humming sound as he thought on the bespectacled boy's words about Ai and Nagisa.

"They both can actually be rather childish though, that's something they do have in common." The redhead said as he took two boards identical to the broken ones, not bothering to look for anything else or different, and they made their way to the counter "They enjoy being pampered and looked after and they like cute things."

"They get into silly arguments that they can't stand losing and are used to getting anything and everything they ask for." Rei kept listing, Rin nodded along with the statements "They also like eating sweets even if not in the same proportion."

"They need constant reminders of how much you love them and they're not afraid to voice their feelings whenever they feel like it." Their talk paused for a moment to focus on the cashier, once each of them had their new products back and paid for they retook the conversation as if the break had never existed.

"They like to have a lot of physical contact and feel dejected when you refuse but lighten up the place with their smile if you accept instead." Both, Rei and Rin, smiled fondly at the memory of their respective little lovers' faces when that happened "And they get so excited when you say you have something planned for them that they jump up and down in anticipation."

"And they look so happy when you give them a present or remember a special occasion that you can't help but smile right back at them." Red eyes focused on the floor as they walked out on the street, more things coming to mind that could be added to the list but it was the Iwatobi butterfly that spoke first.

"They are always ready to do anything and everything with you… and _for_ you."

"If you're sad or mad, they will do the impossible to make you feel better." Rin frowned a bit, remembering his second high school year and the way he acted towards his kouhai "And they will never leave your side no matter how much you try to push them away."

"It's as if you draw them closer the harder you push them away." Rei also got back his memories from when a certain blond chased him around in order to get him to join the swim team last year "Whatever it takes they will do it as long as it means staying close to you."

"… How did they end up with us?" The shark stopped and looked at his friend who also stopped to look back at him, both of them wore amused expressions but there was a little doubt in their eyes.

"I've been asking myself that for about a year." The purple-eyed teen replied with a chuckle "So far I have not been able to find an answer."

"That's good though." The older male sighed "I think it works better for us if we don't know."

"You might be right, Rin-san." With that, both teenagers started waking again, smiling quietly "… Rin-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are we going?" The questioned student stopped dead on his tracks and turned to his companion with a confused face.

"I thought you were leading the way." Now it was Rei's turn to be confused.

"I've been following you this whole time."

"I thought _I _was following _you_!"

"You were the one who said we'd get lunch after going to the store, I thought you already had a place in mind!" By now both teenagers stood pointing accusingly to one another, their similar height prevented either one of them to look more intimidating than the other –despite Rin's teeth and Rei's stern gaze, which only served to make the situation more equal to both-.

"…" Both swimmers let out a sigh and relaxed their stance, deciding it wasn't worth arguing over this: They were both very mature, thank you very much!

"Fine, let's go to a place down the street I know; they've got good food for sportsmen." The Samezuka swimming team captain proposed, starting to walk the same way they had come from; the other male following without question "… You know? There's also a café a few feet farther down the street."

"There is?" A blue eyebrow rose questioningly "...And?"

"From what I've heard, they sell good pastries." Sharp teeth revealed in a smirk "I think it wouldn't be the worst idea to take a look after we've eaten."

"Ironic to mention pastries after picking a place to have lunch because it has healthy food." Rei fixed his glasses over the bridge of his nose but smirked back "However, I can't argue with you this time."

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Hey guys, I have about15 ideas to write about in this fic but not all of them are assured to be written yet, however, if you have any kind of suggestion I will gladly hear it. Maybe your ideas will be better than mine and decide to write them instead or maybe you have similar ideas to mine but I'd like to hear your ideas and/or opinions.

**Next Chapter: About credulous boyfriends… **(Ai and Nagisa's side to this chapter)


	2. About credulous boyfriends…

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite thy might be.

**Chapter summary: **Ai is sure there is no way he and Nagisa are similar, the blond is set on proving him wrong.

**Chapter title:**About credulous boyfriends…

**Couples: **Rintori/Reigisa

**A/N: **Following where I left off last chapter, Rin and Rei were spending the day together since their boyfriends were also hanging out, just, somewhere else. If Rin and Rei could find similarities between their lovers then, obviously Ai and Nagisa –Mainly Nagisa- could find their own similarities and here they are!

This chapter turned out longer than expect but I think it isn't actually that bad, I think this will be one of the longest ones since I want to keep this light but we'll see how the other ones keep coming. Hope you like this chapter and let me know what you think.

Also, I used references from media other than the anime like CD dramas and Mook, I thought it fit in some parts here.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.

**Reminders:**

1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are:** MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.

3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.

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**Chapter 2:****About credulous boyfriends…**

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"Look Ai-chan! This would look perfect on you!"

"Could you, please, lower your voice?... And that shirt is too bright."

"It's not too bright, Ai-chan." Nagisa insisted holding out a rather bright yellow t-shirt with a duck printed on the front, Ai looked at the blond incredulously.

"That may be the kind of colors you like, Hazuki-san, but I don't wear them." The sliver-haired teen said taking the shirt and returning it to the rack. His companion pouted and turned back to the shirts he had been browsing through previously.

"I still think you would have looked good in that shirt, our style isn't that different." Nagisa said picking up an aqua shirt that was a little less bright than the previous one, this piece had a black cartoon-ish kitten for a print. Ai actually seemed to consider this one as an option "And I told you to call me Nagisa."

"Fine, but we aren't as similar as you may think, Nagisa-san." The Samezuka student finally took the offered shirt and his fellow swimmer couldn't hide the smile that appeared on his face.

"I beg to differ, Ai-chan." The small penguin sounded smug and his smile turned into a smirk "I think we are more similar than you care to admit."

"How do you figure?" The blue-eyed male draped the shirt over his arm, apparently saving it to try it on after looking through the shelves some more.

"Well, we both are male teenagers that are in their second high school year." Nitori couldn't help but roll his eyes at that but he didn't turn to look at the blond before replying.

"A lot of people in this mall alone fall into that description."

"We both are shorter than average." This time the slightly taller teen did turn to his companion fully intending to snap that he still needed to go through his growth sprout but the magenta-eyed youth didn't give him the chance "We are both in the swimming club for our respective schools and both of us specialize in two strokes which happen to be breast and crawl."

"… Iwashimizu-kun also falls under that description and so do some other members in the Samezuka swim club." Ai defended himself, still finding it easy to refute the other male's claims but he didn't know Nagisa was far from done. The duckling went back to browsing through the racks, maybe he could find a somewhat warmer color to wear; he usually wore cold colors except for the occasional_ not-so-bright_ yellow.

"We're both into guys." The younger boy's shoulders tensed at that, not because of the fact itself but rather because it reduced his reply chances by a whole lot, he didn't need the other male to notice his somewhat worried expression "And we are currently in a relationship with a teammate from our respective swimming teams."

"Well, our friends are also dating fellow teammates so, by that logic, we are just as similar as some of the members of our clubs." Ai turned to Nagisa and smiled satisfied with himself but his smile fell upon seeing the smirk the other was wearing.

"We also have similar tastes." Nagisa leaned in closer to his fellow breaststroke swimmer who only managed to lean backwards in order to keep some distance between them, otherwise he was sure their noses would be bumping "Even if you say you don't like bright colors I bet our wardrobes look almost the same, including the organization since I happen to know you are just as messy as me."

"I'm getting better at it." Nitori countered with a frown but the Iwatobi student merely poked his nose and moved away, turning to the shirts on display before speaking again.

"According to Rin-Rin your improvement hasn't been much." The silver haired male felt with the right to be insulted by the fact his boyfriend had been telling others about how messy he was, he was _never_ going around telling others stuff about the redhead… Ok, he _usually_ didn't go around talking about his boyfriend but still "Don't worry though, Rei-chan says I haven't gotten any better since we met so you have that in your favor."

"… Thanks, I suppose."

"Anyway, I know for a fact you try to keep your diet as healthy as possible but you enjoy sweets more than any other kind of food." The shorter boy continued, picking a light pink shirt off the rack; it had a penguin for a print so there was no way he wasn't trying that one on "And you like animals, especially dogs which I also happen to love."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with eating something sweet every now and then." Ai took a grey shirt without even looking at it and turned to go to the changing room, Nagisa picked out a random white shirt and followed his fellow student choosing to go into the stall next to the one occupied by Ai so he could keep talking to him "And there's nothing not to love about dogs."

"How did you end up with a cat for a boyfriend then?" Nagisa had to suppress a chuckle upon hearing a thud coming from Ai's stall followed by a soft 'ouch'; _that _had caught him off guard.

"What do you mean with 'cat', Nagisa-san?"

"You've gotta admit Rin-chan can easily remind you of a cat." The questioned boy answered while looking at himself in the mirror, the pink shirt was cute enough to buy "He has trouble showing his feelings often unless he's around people he trusts, public displays of affection can happen but are rarely initiated by him, he has an indifferent aura around him but can be possessive if he feels threatened, his gaze and stance can be quite scary if managed well, he's organized but can be lazy every now and then and he actually enjoys to cuddle when you're alone."

"… Did Rin-senpai tell you that?" There was something in Nitori's tone that made the blond feel like he had hurt him somehow so he was quick to answer.

"Nope, not a single thing." Nagisa took off the pink shirt and picked up the white one, finally taking a look at what he had picked out and couldn't help but smile tenderly at what he saw "But I am pretty observant and I did tell you we have similar tastes, didn't I?"

"Wait," Ai stopped all movement on his body letting the words dawn on him, his second shirt halfway through his arms and torso bare. He raised an eyebrow and looked at the wall that separated his stall from Hazuki's curiously even though he knew his current neighbor couldn't see him "Does that mean…?"

"Yep!" The magenta-eyed male exclaimed smiling at his reflection, three purple butterflies looking back at him over the white background that was the base of the shirt "Rei-chan is the exact same."

"But Ryugazaki-san is always so passionate an emotional about what he likes!" A fully dressed Ai says honestly surprised, not only at the statement, but also at the fact the grey shirt had a red shark on the front with the words _'Shark bait'_ bellow the animal in the same color; it had been a blind pick and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the irony of it.

"He is, and so is Rin-Rin." Nagisa changed back to his original shirt, he was buying the two pieces of clothing he took to try on, they were too perfect not to "I think that's part of the reason why the two of them became friends so easily to the point they could share moments only the two of them."

"Like the training sessions you mean?" Back in his own clothing, the duckling was finding it hard to decide whether to get the shark shirt or not; would it be too embarrassing if he did?

"Yeah, I mean, they started off as rivals and now they are so close I think Rei-chan is more friends with Rin-chan than me!" Nagisa pouted outside the changing room Ai was using, wondering why it was taking him so long to try on a couple of shirts "I mean, Rin-chan and I even had a date and all and he totally likes my boyfriend better than me!"

"That was _not_ a date!" Finally walking out of the changing room the Samezuka student retorted with a frown, he knew Hazuki had only said that to annoy him but what annoyed Ai the most was the fact it actually worked "You two just ended up spending the day alone because Nanase-san and the others were unable to make it, not because you two planned it that way!"

"There, there, Ai-chan" The penguin decided this was as good a moment as any to have his fun-at-Ai-chan's-expense dosage "You don't see me getting mad over the fact you had the chance to look at my boyfriend _twice_ change into speedos with no-one else around."

"That doesn't mean I actually looked at him changing, I just gave him the swimsuit and then went to wait for him by the door of the dressing room!" Ai's mole looked less prominent with the dark blush adorning his cheeks, he hated that he could be played so easily by the other swimmer; he had no idea why he still accepted to hang out with him every time he was invited "Besides, he wasn't your boyfriend yet the first time it happened."

"Maybe so." Nagisa granted with a nod before shrugging "Point is, we have similar taste in men."

"They are also different in a lot of ways though." The blue-eyed teen tried his best to hide the front of the grey shirt from view; if he was going to buy it the last person he wanted to see it was the one person currently holding a conversation with him "Rin-senpai is very reckless while Ryugazaki-san is more calculating and while Ryugazaki-san is hard to upset Rin-senpai can get mad easily if one is not careful, there's also the fact Rin-senpai doesn't have a fascination with beautiful things and you'll never listen to him laughing or exclaiming about things as easily as Ryugazaki-san does; just imagining that is weird enough."

"Don't get me started on just how weird that'd be." Nagisa rubbed the back of his head upon remembering a certain dream he had a few months back, he kept his smile up none-the-less "But I can list more ways in which they are really similar, like us."

"I think I know where you're going to start off."

"They're swimmers whom best stroke is butterfly even though they can actually swim any stroke and they are both part of the swimming team in their respective schools." Ai rolled his eyes, already expecting his companion to start with such menial reasons "They have similar-sounding names and they have the same body structure and the exact same height and totally have a thing for adorable things even if they would rather hide that side of themselves… I think that's also why they chose us as boyfriends; they have a thing for cute small beings and couldn't resist our charm!"

"Hey now, that's not necessarily true!" Aiichirou hated blushing so often but Nagisa had such a way with words that he got easily flustered and had no idea whether it was from annoyance, frustration or embarrassment, maybe it was a mix of all three.

"If you want a different kind of approach I can easily go there." Nagisa cleared his throat loudly as if mocking people who tended to do that before an important speech "They don't like sweets and are careful about what they eat and are very careful of their training regime so that they never stay in a standstill with their swimming; they also are amazing students and avid readers and will take nothing more seriously than discipline to keep their lives in order."

"… Ok, I will give you those last reasons." Defeat wasn't easy to accept but there was nothing the younger birdie could say to refute what had been said.

"I am still not done." Oh how Nitori would love to wipe the smirk off Hazuki's face at that moment "They are punctual and responsible and tidy, they would rather keep their problems to themselves than asking for help even if that means going through a lot of stress, they go through theory before anything is put into practice, they are secretive but when they do share they spill everything-"

"Ok that's true, but-"

"-They think of others before they think of themselves," Nagisa paid no mind to Ai's attempt to interrupt the list and just kept going as if he hadn't heard him "They can cry easily and are actually rather romantic, they have excellent memory for important stuff, they doubt themselves way too often and won't give up until they surpass whatever they feel is keeping them back-"

"Ok, ok, I get-"

"They are also lovable, innocent and gullible and they don't even care that we take advantage of that."

"Yeah, I- Wait! What?" Nitori's thoughts stopped short as he caught the last words spoken by the shorter boy "What do you even mean by that?"

"Aw come on, Ai-chan." Nagisa put his hands on his hips throwing Ai a playful look "You can't tell me you have never talked Rin-Rin into doing something he didn't want to do just by using your charm."

"I have never done such a thing!" Ai crossed his arms in front of him forming an 'X' and shook his head, a frown present on his face while still keeping an eye on the grey shirt, hoping the aqua one was hiding it well enough "If I ask for anything it's as a favor and Rin-senpai decides whether to do it or not by himself."

"And has he ever said no?" A blond eyebrow rose with the question and the taller male lowered his arms before answering.

"No, but that's just because Rin-senpai is always nice to me."

"So, when you ask for this favors, is your voice softer than it usually is? Do you widen your eyes just a little bit more? Are your hands behind your back and is your stance apparently submissive and innocent?" With each question the silver-haired teen's cheeks turned redder and redder, blue eyes looked everywhere but at the magenta stare daring him to contradict him. It's not as if Aiichirou did those things on purpose, as a matter of fact, he hadn't even noticed he did that until Momotarou pointed it out to him and asked him to teach him how to get Sousuke-senpai to agree to everything like Rin-senpai; up until that point he had been completely oblivious to it and now it was something he did without even thinking about it… And he'd be lying if he said he didn't feel slightly proud of himself at managing to get his boyfriend to do everything he asked for, but he wasn't just about to tell Nagisa that.

"I've never actually thought about it." Ai said at last, his eyes still didn't meet the ones from the Iwatobi student though, fearing the expression he was sure to find there.

"It's nothing to feel guilty about." Nitori snapped his head up upon hearing Hazuki's tone of voice, it was so soft you wouldn't be able to tell he had been teasing just a moment ago "Even if we do it and they fall for it every time, if they minded then they wouldn't still be with us, would they?"

"Yeah, I suppose they would have already broken up with us if that was the case." Ai nodded, feeling warm at listening to those words, he wasn't sure if he felt relief or happiness, maybe both.

"Our boyfriends might be easily fooled, overly emotional and quick to trust us about anything." Nagisa continued, his smile nothing like the playful one he tends to wear "But I think I can speak for the both of us when I say they are also the best boyfriends we could ever find and there's nothing we would change about them, even more so when they are so credulous we can basically tell them we are from outer space or phantom thieves and they'd actually consider that statement for a while."

"I think that's going too far, Nagisa-san." Despite his words, Ai couldn't help but finally smile back at the blond ball of energy. He always told himself he was so opposite to the shorter teen there could be no way they could be as close as the other wanted to be, but there had to be a reason why the Samezuka swimmer still accepted to hang out with Nagisa-san and maybe it was for moments like this one "But I understand your point."

"I knew you'd see things my way eventually, Ai-chan." And just like that, the annoying smirk was back on the magenta-eyed boy's face "Or should I say, 'Shark bait'?

"Nagisa-san!"

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I still have some ideas to write about in this fic but not all of them are assured to be written yet, however, if you have any kind of suggestion I will gladly hear it. Maybe your ideas will be better than mine and decide to write them instead or maybe you have similar ideas to mine but I'd like to hear your ideas and/or opinions.

**Next Chapter: About bara boyfriends… **(If you read the couples I'll be using you already know who I will be using next chapter)


	3. About bara boyfriends

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be.

**Chapter summary: **Momotarou has a very important question to ask Haruka, apparently, size matters a lot for the high-spirited otter.

**Chapter title:**About bara boyfriends…

**Couples: **MakoHaru/SouMomo

**A/N: Going for a new set of couples, now we have here my (lame) try at doing something with Momo and Haru, as short as their interaction in the series –specifically the OVA- was, since they are dating who are dating for this fic they have more things in common than they expect.**

**I'm not used to playing with this kind of humor so I apologize in advance if it's just too awful and… I might get better at it? I don't really know but anything's possible. This chapter turned out shorter than the previous one but more or less the length I'm aiming for. Hope you like this chapter and let me know what you think.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.**

**Reminders:**

**1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

**2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.**

**3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.**

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**Chapter 3: ****About bara boyfriends…**

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"Nanase-san! Nanase-san!" A half-dressed Haruka turned with a bored expression to look at the redhead that bounced up to him, his expression wasn't because he disliked the otter or anything of the sort but he was just as energetic as Nagisa and that wasn't bad either, just a little hard to handle sometimes. To this day, he was still surprised Sousuke had started a romantic relationship with the younger Mikoshiba, not only because Momotarou had seemed only interested in girls as far as he cared to notice but also because the dolphin never saw a special interest from Sousuke to his kouhai whenever they met, needless to say the news had surprised everyone in the Iwatobi swim club, though Rin and Nitori seemed pretty unimpressed by it; there must have been more hints to it in the Shark Academy they missed.

"Do you need something?" Momo's attitude didn't waver even when the tone wanted to give away the fact he wasn't necessarily willing to help.

"Well," Momotarou looked around as if making sure no-one was around, they were in the Samezuka locker room getting ready to leave after practice, of course Haruka had to be the very last one to get out of the pool and it seemed like Mikoshiba had decided to wait for him; the kid had already changed back into his uniform and now he was just standing before him with that bright smile of his "Actually, I have something important to ask you."

"What about?" He didn't particularly care but if the redhead was anything like the blond he often compared him to then he wouldn't leave Haruka alone until he got what he wanted, whatever that might be.

"How big is Tachibana-san?"

"... What?"

"How big is Tachibana-san? What's his size?" Blue eyes looked quite confused at the golden curious stare, what the hell was the kid asking exactly?

"What do you mean?" Haruka was kind of worried of what might be the answer but, at the same time, he couldn't help but ask. Momotarou scratched the back of his head and let out a laugh.

"Well, Tachibana-san and Sousuke-senpai are kind of the same height so I would like to know Tachibana-san's size, if you don't mind; it would help me out a lot!" The younger boy finished with such a huge smile that it looked almost innocent but that explanation had left the dolphin even more perplexed than before. He needed to make his question even more specific.

"Ok, when you say 'big'," Haruka started letting out a sigh "Which... part of him are you talking about?"

"Eh?" Momo took a moment to think about it and then he laughed lightly again "Ah! I guess 'big' is not really how you describe it, I see how that would be confusing, mmmhhhmmmm..."

The exaggerated thinking sound the backstroke swimmer made had Haruka doubting he was even serious.

"Ok, how thick is Tachibana-san?"... This kid wasn't serious.

"I am not answering that." Momotarou's face immediately fell at that.

"But why? I thought you would help me out after what everyone said earlier!" The whining was loud and Haruka felt like cringing but he was rather confused by what the redhead claimed to fully achieve the expression.

"What did everyone say earlier?"

"You don't remember what we talked about when you all got here?" The first-year seemed honestly offended at that and the older teen couldn't help but feel a bit guilty "About my present for Sousuke-senpai's birthday?"

"Your present..." It still did not ring a bell.

"Yeah! Remember how I told everyone what I wanted to give him and asked you guys like_ 'Would that be ok? Is it too soon? We have been together for two weeks but it's his birthday and I wasn't sure'_ and everyone was like _'He will love it'_ and _'It's a very nice detail' _and _'That's so corny but I think he will like it'_!?" It was amazing the quantity of words the Samezuka student could say in one breath "So I will go through with it but I need to know if the present will fit so it isn't too tight, otherwise it might break or it'll hurt him but before anyone could help me out with that part, Sousuke-senpai walked in and we had to interrupt so he wouldn't find out about it."

"..." The blue-eyed male had to ask because that explanation was just not something that he wanted to duel on "Ok, please remind me what is it you are giving Sousuke for his birthday?"

"A matching necklace, Nanase-san!" The younger male exclaimed opening his arms as if to make his words even bigger, Haruka let out a breath he didn't know he was holding "Remember? I said I saw a couple of necklaces with half a ring each and that I had asked my sister about it and was like _'It depends on the kind of man he is because he could either like it or think it's too big of a commitment_' and I came to ask you guys since you all are, well, guys and you know Sousuke-senpai and you seemed to agree that I gave it to him because, even though we've only been together for two weeks, we actually have liked each other for a while now and we were just scared and confused but maybe could have started dating at least a month ago!".

Well, that was a relief, Haruka didn't know what he was thinking... Ok, no, he did know what he was thinking but he wasn't sure what had made him go down that path... Well, it could have been the way Mikoshiba had started the questioning or the fact he hadn't even paid attention to their earlier conversation since he was too wrapped up in trying to break free from Makoto's grasp in order to get to the pool. He needed to start paying attention to what others said if he wanted to avoid this kind of situations and not having anyone staring at him the way the redhead was doing it right now- Wait, why was he staring?... Oh, right, his gift problem.

"All right..." Haruka said with a sigh, fortunately he had been able to finish getting dressed during the ramble so he had at least managed to accomplish _something_ throughout this weird conversation "And what does the necklace have to do with Makoto?"

"Well, the necklace fits me well enough but Sousuke-senpai has a bigger neck than me and Tachibana-san is about the same size so I thought that if I knew his neck size I wouldn't have to worry about finding out Sousuke-senpai's size while trying to hide it from him." Momo explained seemingly nervous about it.

"... I see... Wait here." Without another word, the Iwatobi swimmer turned around and walked out of the locker room leaving a bemused golden-eyed boy behind, if the first question had included the '_**neck**_size' part a lot could have been avoided. The dolphin looked around the pool area soon finding his swim team engaged in conversation with Samezuka's latest relay team "Makoto."

The raven-haired teen didn't even yell but the pool area was practically empty and the echo was enough to help his voice travel all the way to his boyfriend and the rest of his friends. When the brunet turned around all that was needed was a stare for him to smile at the older teen and excuse himself to join him at the locker room door, Haruka couldn't help but notice Sousuke looking at the door for a few seconds obviously expecting someone to come out of it. When Makoto reached him Haruka moved from the doorframe and went back to where he left the redhead knowing the taller boy would follow right after him. They went back to Mikoshiba again, the otter was leaning against the locker next to Haruka's borrowed one with his arms folded over his chest and looking confused still.

The Samezuka swimmer looked up and his brow furrowed a little more upon noticing his backstroke rival in the room, the tall male mirrored his expression but the hydrophilic boy only looked as passive as usual.

"Makoto," Green eyes met blue as Haruka continued "What's your neck size?"

"Eh?" The orca looked at his boyfriend for a moment before looking back at the first-year, a look of realization found its way to his face two seconds later "Ah! Is this about your gift for Sousuke's birthday?"

"Yes!" Momo yelled enthusiastically before reaching over and grasping both of Makoto's hands in his "Tachibana-san actually pays attention to me!"

The blue-eyed boy couldn't say he was amused by those actions but he knew that's just how Mikoshiba acted and that he had done it out of relief for having someone helping him out. Makoto smiled warmly as usual and gave him a nod.

"Well, I'm not sure of my exact size," Momotarou's face fell and he immediately continued "But if you have anything on you that can be helpful you can measure my neck right now."

"Really?!" Like a Christmas tree, the redhead's face lit up, his hold on the bigger hands tightened slightly and Makoto nodded again "Awesome! Let me just..."

The shortest male there turned to his bag and rummaged through it, humming for a moment before letting out a cry, the Iwatobians could only see the way their fellow swimmer's shoulders slumped before he turned to them with a pout.

"I forgot the measuring tape!" Momotarou said, his eyes watering and Haruka could only guess it was expressions like that that made Sousuke fall for the kid in the first place; he looked kind of cute despite his loud cry, still reminding the raven-haired teen of his blond friend somewhat… Also, had Mikoshiba thought through enough to plan on having a measuring tape on his bag already or was it just something he tended to carry around?

"Um, well..." Makoto spoke trying to calm the otter down "Why don't you go back to your dorm room and look for it! We can wait here until you get back."

"It'll take too long! And Sousuke-senpai might get suspicious!" The redhead didn't calm down at all and the free-style swimmer caught himself wondering whether Sousuke would try to calm him down as well –and succeed- or if he would just go along with the shorter male, the relationship still kind of a mystery to him since Momotarou appeared to be a handful most of the time… Although, Rin had told Haruka once before that Makoto must have a hard time dating him though he didn't think he could be nearly as bad as this ki- "Wait! I know!"

Before either of the third-graders could ask what he meant, Momo took off his blazer and jumped to throw the sleeve around the brunet's neck, holding it like he would a measuring tape; still surprised by the sudden movement, Makoto just stood still until he was let free again while Haru stood to the side just making sure his boyfriend wasn't being strangled. Momo finally stepped back and reached into his bag pulling out a pen and marking the sleeve where his thumb said he should, the black line very much noticeable over the white garment. The youngest male there nodded satisfied and turned back to his elders with a grateful smile.

"Thank you so much, Tachibana-san!" Makoto shook his head, his warm smile back on his face.

"I'm glad I could help, hope Sousuke likes his present" Mikoshiba's face turned a nice shade of red but, if possible, he looked even more excited than before.

"So do I." Momotarou put the blazer back on and took his bag before racing towards the pool area "See you outside!"

Haruka heard his boyfriend chuckle and turned to find him looking fondly at the redhead's retreating back. Green eyes soon turned to meet with blue once more and Makoto smiled softly that smile he knew was just for him.

"Ready to go?" Haruka simply nodded in response, he took his bag and closed the door to the locker he used for the joint practice to join his boyfriend on his way back to the pool area. As they crossed the threshold, the raven-haired teen felt hands on his neck and looked down to find the younger male fixing his tie. Nanase sighed, trying to sound annoyed but knowing Makoto would see right through that and he could practically feel the loving smile without looking at the backstroke swimmer's face. Turning his gaze to his pack of friends he caught sight of Samezuka's very own backstroke swimmer trying to slap away the big hand reaching for his arm; Sousuke obviously had seen the black mark on Mikoshiba's blazer and wanted to take a better look at it... Dating a gentle giant did bring those kind of situations much too often but Haruka wasn't about to complain and, judging by the bright, satisfied smile that Momotarou had on his face now that Sousuke had decided to give up on the blazer and opt for resting his hand on the orange locks of the shorter boy affectionately while still keeping up the conversation with the group, neither would Mikoshiba Momotarou.

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I still have some ideas to write about in this fic but not all of them are assured to be written yet, however, if you have any kind of suggestion I will gladly hear it. Maybe your ideas will be better than mine and decide to write them instead or maybe you have similar ideas to mine but I'd like to hear your ideas and/or opinions.

**Next Chapter: About dating a Mikoshiba… **(If you read the couples I'll be using you already know who I will be using next chapter)


	4. About dating a Mikoshiba…

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be.

**Chapter summary: **Gou wants Sousuke to open up to her about his problems, she soon finds out they have the same problem.

**Chapter title:**About dating a Mikoshiba…

**Couples: **SeiGou/SouMomo

**A/N: **Ok, let's welcome the one and only straight couple in the whole one-shot series! This idea seemed interested to me, Gou and Sousuke dating a Mikoshiba brother each just asked to be written about so I said "Why not?" Of course there will be a Matsuoka version of this, I'm actually as excited to write that one as I was with this one and it will come soon (I hope).

I've tried to imagine what a conversation between these two might have worked and I hope they aren't too OC, if they are please forgive me. BTW I love the adorkable Mikoshiba brothers myself and I imagine them being actual decent boyfriends rather than players because of their general attitude: While Seijirou was loud and happy most of the time he _was_ a good, responsible captain and was observant and knew his team, always making sure they kept the spirit up and knowing when to be tough; Momo for his part quickly grew to prove himself worthy of the team and really looks up to the older members not to mention he's a great friend specially to Ai and both redheads seem like the kind of people who would be oblivious to whatever that doesn't interest them so I can actually imagine them being quite loyal in the relationship to the point they don't realize when they're being hit on by other people.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.

**Reminders:**

**1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

**2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.**

**3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.**

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**Chapter 4:****About dating a Mikoshiba…**

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"So you take that and replace here." Gou did as she was told, replacing the meddlesome 'x' with the '2' so she could start looking for 'y'. She had to admit, Sousuke was a good teacher and she's known it for years, ever since they were younger but he was usually less serious when helping her out which led her to take a proper look at the boy across her: There were bags under his eyes and his shoulders were tense which immediately told her he was exhausted, it was weird considering her brother seemed well-rested and they shared a room, right?

"Are you ok, Sousuke-kun?" The girl asked concerned, getting even more worried when the questioned boy jumped slightly as if not expecting her to say anything.

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine." Turquoise eyes looked away from the scrutinizing red gaze and Gou instantly knew he was lying.

"You look tired, did you not sleep well last night?" The redhead waited patiently for her companion to answer, she had known Sousuke long enough to know he was someone that needed patience if you wanted to get anything out of him and trying to force anything out of him might take longer than simply waiting for him to speak up on his own, in her experience at least, so she waited.

"I went to bed late last night." The boy finally admitted with a sigh returning his gaze to the younger girl "I went to a concert."

"A concert?" The Iwatobi Swim Club manager was surprised to hear that; sure, Sousuke liked concerts, most teenagers did, but he knew he had to take an early train to get back home early with Rin so they could start studying with tests coming up next week and he was pretty responsible when it came to his studies so this was practically unconceivable "Did my brother go with you?"

"No, actually…" Sousuke trailed off and took a long look at the female as if deciding whether or not he should reveal any more, after about ten seconds the third-grader averted his gaze again "Momotarou invited me."

"Oh!" Ok so the relationship between the youngest Mikoshiba and Sousuke wasn't a secret to Gou, after almost three months of them going out together she should be stupid not to know about it, not only because of how obvious they were in public even when they tried to keep everything at minimum whenever they were out with everyone else but also because Rin and Seijirou had shared the news with her as soon as they knew about it –not in the same fashion, one redhead was rather amused while the other was downright sick with concern- so it was no secret to her anymore but still, after so much time, the butterfly swimmer seemed unable to talk freely about his relationship with her, as if it was something she shouldn't be supposed to know about let alone asked about but she wished the boy could be more open about his romantic life; she could help him, she knew she could! "Was it like a date?"

"Not quite." The male answered rubbing the back of his neck, he appeared to still be much too nervous around her and she felt glad her brother had been sent to run some errands for their mom, otherwise she was sure her childhood friend would prefer to wait for her to leave to even express anything rather than doing it in her presence, she could use this moment to prove she was just as good at this as Rin, she had a boyfriend as well so that had to account for something.

"Then?" She prompted and he looked away again.

"He was supposed to go with another first year but he had to cancel last minute and Momotarou didn't want to go alone so he asked me if I could accompany him instead and I said yes even when I didn't know the band." That was a long sentence! Gou felt proud of herself.

"But did you enjoy it at least?" She asked still mindful of her tone.

"The band was pretty good." He admitted with a small smile, his eyes found hers for a moment before they drifted back to his textbook again "I asked Momo to lend me some CD's already."

"That's great!" Gou exclaimed with a wide smile but it disappeared as soon as she noticed Sousuke's broad shoulders didn't seem any less tense than previously "Then what is the problem?"

"Why do you think there is a problem?" That was a defensive question and the second-grader could only raise an eyebrow incredulously.

"Come on, Sousuke-kun." She said with a shake of her head "We've known each other since forever, I believe I'm capable of reading you better than most people."

"…" The tall male stayed silent looking at his companion, she was being honest with him, she basically considered him a second brother so she had to be able to get through him the same way she did with Rin "Well, there was… this guy…"

"Ok…?" She wanted him to continue, she could be of help but he needed to help her out first so she waited again for him to keep going.

"He sat next to Momotarou in the concert, he was accompanied by two girls and he loved the band as much as Momo did so they clicked right away." Sousuke explained slowly, he was still not convinced of what he was doing but Gou wouldn't let him back down so she kept her gaze fixed on him making sure he could feel it even when he kept looking everywhere but back at her "I thought it was fine, after all, Momo tends to make friends quickly and enjoys to be surrounded by people so what's one more, right?"

"Right." Gou agreed if only to keep the conversation going.

"But he's so stupid!" The redhead jumped when a hand fell on the table's surface, glad the dining room table was stable enough to keep the flowerpot that rested upon it immobile, the water inside _was_ moving slightly though. The hand that hadn't been used against the furniture was mussing up dark locks of hair, the swimmer's face wasn't nervous anymore but it did look exasperated "He's just such an idiot."

"Why would you say that?" The younger teen asked genuinely curious, she knew Momotarou might not be the smartest person out there but she knew this had less to do with actual intelligence and more with simple awareness.

"After the concert ended the girls went their separate ways because someone was picking them up and the guy said he was taking the train which, coincidentally, happened to be the same one we were going to board so Momotarou invited him along; he was supposed to get off the train a couple of stations before us so we went together." Sousuke continued, he was on a roll and Gou assumed he wouldn't be able to stop even if he wanted to so she didn't interrupt him "I let them talk just staying by them and neither of them seemed to mind, the guy didn't even turn to look at me and why would he? He had Momotarou to keep all his focus on, even once we were seated in the train he didn't leave his side and he kept talking and talking and he actually started openly flirting and this idiot was just so oblivious! The guy kept touching his arm for crying out loud!"

"He was touching him and still didn't notice a thing?" There was something strangely familiar with this situation.

"No, he didn't! I finally got tired of it when the guy tried to hold his hand so I took Momotarou's hand instead and got up pulling him out of the train four stations before our stop, the kid tried following us but I stopped right in front of the door and didn't let him get off, the doors closed and he left in the train." The whale-shark let out a breath, frown still present upon his face and kept talking "Momotarou started asking me why I had done that to his new friend and started complaining that now we needed to wait for the next train and we'd be getting back past curfew and get in trouble with his brother because of course he was going to know if he was late even one day _so_ I had to spell out to him that his so-called new friend was _hitting_ on him for everything to dawn on him."

"I'm assuming he spent the next couple of minutes replaying all the events in his head before he started apologizing and calling himself stupid and promising he would never let anything like that happen again?" Turquoise found red, the taller of the two was now the one looking surprised while the shorter one had a frown on her face that just couldn't be masked.

"Yes, how did you know?" Gou let out a chuckle that sounded like a combination between amused and annoyed, she looked down at her notebook for a second and then looked back at her surrogate brother.

"You're not the only one dating a Mikoshiba." She said and Sousuke only looked more confused at her words "Do you remember my boyfriend?"

"Momo's older brother." She nodded at those words and spoke up again.

"It seems they have a way of being _obvious_ when they're interested in someone but _oblivious_ when someone is interested in them." Gou explained with a roll of her eyes, not at her companion but at the orange-haired brothers they were going out with "Like, there was this one time when we were on the subway and a girl walked into Seijirou dropping all the stuff she was carrying, Seijirou immediately bent down to help her pick everything up and he started apologizing and making jokes to try to lighten the mood and the girl just took this as her cue to start flirting and saying how he was such a gentleman and he was so handsome and 'I bet you practice a sport, you look strong!' and he was just going along with it so innocently she assumed he was flirting back, I wasn't happy but as soon as she had all her stuff back in her arms Seijirou apologized again and said bye before taking hold of my hand and resume on the conversation we were having before the incident as if it had never happened. Can't lie, it felt pretty good to see the girl's bemused face but still, he never noticed what she was trying to do!"

"And you just let it go?" Sousuke asked curiously, she shook her head at that.

"Of course not, once we were out of the station I told him how that girl was totally flirting with him and he was all like 'No, of course she wasn't, she was just being nice' so I pointed out everything the girl did and he started piecing everything together before he started apologizing and saying he was an idiot and swearing it would never happen again." The youngest Matsuoka answered with a small smile "He also keeps promising over and over he'll be more discreet when we go out, guess how long that lasts?"

"Fifteen minutes, give or take five minutes." The dark-haired teen replied easily, Gou maybe should have been surprised by the fact he nailed the answer but she wasn't and something about it made her felt relieved; there was someone out there who understood "Passed that time they will start talking non-stop in their amazingly natural loud voice about whatever topic they find interesting at the moment."

"And even after talking so much they still have energy to spare for the rest of the day." The girl said leaning towards the broad boy, she was so happy; all her friends were all about how lucky she was for dating a college student because surely he was much more mature than any of the guys at their school and, while Seijirou did have a responsible attitude and could be pretty mature when the situation called for it, he did have his childish moments but she felt none of her friends would ever understand that and her swimming team weren't much better, not even Rei dating Nagisa had to go through half the situations she had simply because the blond was not nearly as naïve as either of the Mikoshiba brothers no matter how hyper all of them seemed to be "Even on the way back home they are still lively enough to talk about the day and you're just left wondering how is it they're not nearly as drained as you feel."

"Have you ever fallen asleep on the way back home while your boyfriend was still talking?" Sousuke's whole pose screamed 'relaxed' by now with his forearms resting on the table so he himself was leaning a little towards his childhood friend, Gou's own posture basically a mirror of his own and she couldn't help but feel slightly amused by this but didn't mention it opting for nodding instead to keep the conversation going "I have a couple of times on the train and both times I've woken up with some time to spare before our stop only to find Momo sleeping against me peacefully, as if he had finally run out of energy."

"I've fallen asleep a few times myself, half of them I went through the same thing as you just that Seijirou always made sure not to lean on me since he says he's too heavy and could hurt me by accident." Gou said fondly, the annoyance she had felt mere moments prior vanished in its entirety "The other half I've woken up to find him staring quietly out the window and sitting as still as he can manage so he won't disturb me but all the time he makes sure to keep an arm around my shoulders to keep me steady, I've always found that to be really nice of him."

"I can see how Rin has practically nothing to say against this guy despite the fact he would _love_ to have anything on him." The Samezuka student commented with a chuckle "But I'm glad to hear he's treating you well."

"I have to admit I'm rather surprised about how the relationship is working out." Gou admitted with a small blush, she saw Sousuke raise an eyebrow in a silent request to elaborate so she obliged "When I first met him I didn't want anything to do with him, I just thought he liked to flirt with girls in general and that he had just found me cute enough to hit on me and, of course, he was in an all-boys school so a girl around was not really a normal occurrence in Samezuka so I assumed he was just taking this as an opportunity to get himself a girl.

Throughout the first year of knowing him I just let everything slide and decided to forget about it; he was going to college soon so he would surely forget about me but we saw each other again in the swimming competitions and he still claimed to be interested in me. During breaks he would find me and try to really get to know me better, during those times there would be some girls that tried to approach him, older girls who probably thought I was his sister or something, and he ignored them all; he never paid them much mind, just enough to be nice like he usually is and it was the same with the very few guys that attempted to take Seijirou's attention to themselves… Although I wasn't really worried about the guys, anyway, seeing him honestly interested in me and me solely I finally acceded to go out with him after the regionals and accepted to be his girlfriend after the nationals and since then he has been a really amazing boyfriend if I do say so myself, he's been pretty attentive and very loyal and he's honestly trying his best with me regardless of his overly-nice nature and naïve personality… Or perhaps I like him also because of that."

"You're probably right." Sousuke said smiling slightly "Truth be told I never thought I'd end up with someone like Momotarou, I mean, he's pretty different from me and I saw him absurdly smitten with you from the moment he met you and throughout half of this year's swimming competitions so I just tried not to pay much attention to him but we ended up in the same relay team so I had no option other than to spend time with him. He was always so animated and really looks up to his seniors, he's eager to learn and prove himself and tried to make everyone feel included in everything, honestly I don't know when it was that I started liking him, it just happened but I still presumed he had a thing for you and even if he didn't I was sure he was just interested in girls so I was simply wasting my time… Or so I thought, until I noticed we started spending more time together even outside the pool, sometimes with Rin and Ai but every other time just the two of us; there were times when I could swear I saw him blush when we accidentally touched or try to flirt while we conversed but I brushed it off as just my silly crush still acting up until one day he just up and told me 'Please have a date with me, Sousuke-senpai!' leaving me baffled, what could I say? I accepted but in my mind there was a voice that kept reminding me that he was straight and he had probably just gotten confused because of the environment with some other guys from the team and the complete lack of girls as you mentioned, but he seemed so genuinely happy of being out with me and when he kept asking for dates every other day I got my hopes up and I actually knew he was serious after, despite how many cute girls passed by us or talked to us, his eyes no longer lingered on them but rather focused on me; when he finally asked me if we could become boyfriends there was nothing holding me back from saying yes."

"So that's how happened?" Gou couldn't stop herself and regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth, the look Sousuke was giving her said he was not expecting her to say that and it might just cause him to close in on himself again "Sorry, I'm just… I always wondered how you to had gotten together, I mean, my brother never told me anything and I thought you didn't trust me enough to talk about it with me so I was always curious, I don't mean to be nosy or anything."

"… No, it's ok; I guess I _should_ have talked to you about this at some point." Now the girl was the surprised one, she wasn't expecting her friend to forgive her so easily let alone admit something like that without any apparent problem "I guess I just thought it would have been weird, you know? I mean, you're dating Momotarou's older brother."

"But that's precisely why we should have talked about this much sooner!" To hell with being cautious, he had finally admitted to want to talk about this with her so she had no reason to hold back any longer "Do you have any idea how hard it's been for me to find anyone to talk to about my relationship? No-one understands me! They all think that my boyfriend is so wonderful and mature –which he can be- but I can't find anyone who can actually sympathize with me about how he's such a loud-mouthed idiot or an incredibly loyal, childish, naïve dork or what it's like to see a girl, a boy or some of both all over him and him being oblivious because he's amazingly focused on our own relationship to care to notice when others try to hit on him and how much I love that about him while at the same time I want to hit him over the head for… Well, for being the way he is!"

"…" Again the taller male was rendered speechless and Gou tried to regain her breath, she regretted nothing and was happy to get everything out of her chest, she was sure had it been anyone else they would have been confused about her rant but, as Sousuke's face softened in an understanding smile, she knew she had done the right thing telling him all this because he _knew_, he _understood_! "Well, that's what we get from dating a Mikoshiba."

He, too, loved a Mikoshiba.

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I still have some ideas to write about in this fic but not all of them are assured to be written yet, however, if you have any kind of suggestion I will gladly hear it. Maybe your ideas will be better than mine and decide to write them instead or maybe you have similar ideas to mine but I'd like to hear your ideas and/or opinions.

**Next Chapter: About dating a Matsuoka…**


	5. About dating a Matsuoka…

**Fanfiction title: **About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary: **One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be.

**Chapter summary: **Seijirou wants to know more about Nitori's relationship with Matsuoka; turns out, he already knew everything there was to know…

**Chapter title: **About dating a Matsuoka…

**Couples: **SeiGou/Rintori

**A/N: **Back with the one straight couple of this one-shot series but this time it's the other half of the couple speaking of his own experiences with a Matsuoka sibling to the only other person who can possibly understand his suffering, his very own kouhai!

As expected, I did have fun with these two, I love comparing siblings in general and much like I tried to imagine what the Mikoshiba brothers might be like as boyfriends and how similar they might be in their respective relationships, I tried to imagine what the Matsuoka siblings would be like in their own relationships and I seriously believe them to be pretty devoted but also rather insecure as they appear to be the type who gets jealous and also had to bring back some of the things I mentioned in the previous chapter, I just had to. Hope again the characters aren't too OOC and hope you enjoy.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.

**Reminders:**

**1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

**2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.**

**3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.**

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**Chapter 5:****About dating a Matsuoka…**

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"Are you sure you don't want anything Mikoshiba-senpai?" Ai asked his former team captain who was currently sitting at Momotarou's desk looking interestedly -read 'nosing around'- at everything the otter possessed in there. The college student had arrived to the room about twenty minutes ago in hopes of hanging out with his brother for a while before meeting with Gou in the evening for a dinner date but it so happened that Momotarou's last math test had proven too much for the redhead and was now trying to get at least a decent mark so Rin, Sousuke and Seijirou wouldn't be on his case about his studies and how important they were; Seijirou had decided to wait until his brother was done to go out, knowing the youngest Mikoshiba had worked hard the last couple of days to get ready for this.

"I'm sure, if anything I should be treating you something." Golden eyes turned to curious blue ones, the second-grader was standing by his own desk, a history book opened for his own study session; he had offered to go to the vending machine to get the former swimming team captain something to drink at least but he had declined "Momo told me he wouldn't be able to do anything if it hadn't been for 'Ai-senpai's' help, he said you helped him study for today's test."

"Ah, that." Nitori blushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "It was nothing, it's part of my responsibility as senpai."

"... You know? It's a little weird to imagine you as somebody's senpai." Seijirou sad without any ill feeling but he saw the younger swimmer frowning slightly "No offense."

"None taken." Ai replied nicely, as always "But why do you think so?"

"Well, I always saw you as a cute little kouhai who used to do everything to be of use to his senpai." The redhead said with a wide smile "But now I guess you're a cute little senpai who does everything to help out his kouhai."

"Eh…" Nitori seemed hesitant at his words but the taller teen meant every word so there shouldn't be any problem with that "Well, I'm kind of in the middle at the moment."

"That's true, you are!" Seijirou exclaimed with a boisterous laugh "It must be hard for you, I heard from Momotarou you tend to help Matsuoka with his captain chores whenever you can."

"I-It's not as if he can't do it on his own!" The silver-haired boy exclaimed quickly waving his arms in front of him "Rin-senpai is pretty capable of doing it all on his own, he just lets me help out because I'm always insisting on it!"

"Calm down, Nitori; I never said he wasn't doing a good job." The taller teen said before the kid gave himself an asthma attack in trying to defend the new team captain. Nitori relaxed soon enough with a couple of deep breaths and smiled sheepishly at the college student who smiled right back at him "Speaking of Matsuoka though, Gou-kun asked me to make sure everything was going ok between the two of you so, how's it going with Matsuoka?"

"What?!" The second-grader's face lit up like a traffic light and he went rigid with nervousness "D-Did Gou-san really a-ask that?"

"Yeah, when I told her I was going to visit Momo here she asked me to check on you two." The older youth said with a shrug before humming to himself "Maybe she meant doing it discreetly."

"You think?!" Ai suddenly seemed to be mindful of his voice volume and cleared his throat in order to compose himself "I mean, I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to ask me directly about it."

"Perhaps you're right but, oh well." Sei still didn't seem to see the problem with the situation "So?"

"… So?" The duck parroted only receiving a prompting nod in response "Ah… we're ok?"

"That's it? You're "ok"?" The former captain raised an eyebrow and smirked "Should I tell Gou-kun on Matsuoka?"

"No!" Ai said raising his hands in front of his chest in an appeasing manner "We're great, really."

"Take it easy, I'm just messing with you." Seijirou assured with a chuckle, he forgot how easily it was to get this kid worked up but he had to admit he had always shown endurance both, in the water and out of it "I am really curious now though, last year you two had a rough start but after the relay with Iwatobi everything just seemed to fall into place and you soon became the power couple of the team even before you became official so what's it really like to be in a relationship with him? Is it, like, looking out for when the shark might bite?"

"… Not quite." The questioned swimmer answered dubiously, as if wondering whether he should answer or not but Mikoshiba didn't see why he couldn't be trusted with the answer "He's always really nice to me and looks out for me, I have nothing bad to say."

"Aw, come on! There must be _something_ you have to look out for with him!" The golden-eyed boy leaned forward on his chair; he really wanted to know "Ok, here, I'll give you an example-"

"An example?"

"Like, I really like Gou-kun but there are times when I feel like she hides some things from me because she doesn't want me to worry and tries to handle things on her own without realizing it hurts me more to see her so stressed than it does to make time to help her, which I'd do without a complaint, mind you." Seijirou said raising a finger in front of his face "Also, when she stresses she ends up being mean to me for no reason… none that is my fault at least and even though she apologizes later she's still pretty scary for someone so small, you know?"

"Well, yeah, I know." Ai replied with a small frown "Rin-senpai tends to try to keep things for himself as well which is why I have to ask to help him all the time, otherwise he would do it all by himself and he can also stress when he has to do a lot of things, being in third grade and all, and he can be a little bit mean but nothing at all like last year and he also apologizes and makes it up to me if he does something he feels wrong even when he didn't mean to."

"They never mean to be cruel to others but they have a hot head." The seated male smiled easily "They're emotional in general, I mean, I saw Matsuoka last year letting his emotions get the best of him but he's also very passionate about what he loves and Gou-kun is similar in that aspect; you should see how devoted she is to her team and how easily it is to tell what she feels because her face and body express it easily without her permission."

"But that's not really that bad, is it?" Aiichirou asked bemused "It's fairly easy to read them and one doesn't have to keep guessing their mood, the trick is finding out the reason behind it."

"Yeah, sure, but what happens when you do?" Seijirou asked raising an eyebrow "I have been yelled at, cried on, blamed and every other thing of the sort you can imagine."

"Maybe sometimes but only when they're in a bad mood." The younger teen finally decided to take a seat at his desk, the oldest Mikoshiba offspring felt better knowing he didn't have to look up anymore to keep up the conversation "When they're happy then you can laugh with them, I like to see Rin-senpai laugh."

"You do?" The redhead asked curiously "Aren't you scared of his teeth showing?"

"… His teeth…" Sei didn't feel like his question was as weird as his kouhai seemed to think it was "I don't really mind his teeth."

"If you say so." The taller male shrugged "It's hard not to take them into consideration, I mean, he's snarled at me before and they are a little bit intimidating; you must remember that from last year."

"Ah, well, yeah; back then it was a little scary if you were on the receiving end but that doesn't happen anymore." Ai replied before adding silently "Not to me at least…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" An orange eyebrow rose, he thought he might have heard wrong but with Nitori's reaction it was easy to guess he _had_ actually heard right.

"'Not to me' you said." The older teen couldn't help the smirk that rose on his face "That means he still does it to others right?"

"W-Well, yeah, of course, like… You know, like when a member of the swimming tam slacks off or something and he gets mad at them." The high school student moved his gaze from one place to the other trying not to meet his former captain's eyes, obviously he was hiding something but he felt that, if he just inquired and didn't share anything, the sitting duck before him might take flight just to avoid giving answers so Sei tried the same technique he tried earlier.

"Yeah sure, Gou-kun can get pretty mad if her team slacks off, particularly with Hazuki-kun if memory serves right." Those words seemed to calm Nitori somewhat but he knew it was the next statement that could make the difference "But she also gets mad when it comes to other girls, you know?"

"Other girls?" Aiichirou finally met his gaze again and he seemed curious; he had worded his words correctly.

"Yeah; she seems to think almost all the girls around my age who come close to me try to flirt with me even though I tell her time and time again that they just needed some kind of assistance because they were lost or because I accidentally knocked their things over and helped pick them up or something and then she would tell me how they were totally flirting with me, she gets jealous so easily and I _have_ seen the looks she gives those girls when she thinks I'm not looking and I have never seen a bigger resemblance between the siblings than when they frown." The taller male folded his arms over his chest with a sigh "I mean, I like that she actually thinks other girls might be interested in me because that means she thinks I'm actually worth, not only hers, but other girls' attention but she makes me feel guilty!"

"Well they _can_ act somewhat jealous-"

"_Somewhat jealous_?" Seijirou scoffed "Ok, I think I'm not supposed to tell you this but Momo told me Matsuoka actually has come to him a couple of times before to ask if you had said anything about a couple of guys who apparently hit on you during practice with other schools, two different schools."

"Yeah, Momo-kun actually told me about that a few weeks ago." Ai confessed "Apparently the guys in question were the two first year, breaststroke swimmers who saw us at the Nationals and wanted some pointers which I gave to them but, apparently, to Rin-senpai that was them hitting on me and either me responding or being way too oblivious to realize their true intentions."

"And I'm guessing those two were some of the ones who have been receiving Matsuoka's snarl lately."

"Yeah and he's also been giving it to other guys though I'm pretty sure a lot of them didn't really deserve it." The silver-haired male frowned "But if I tell him anything he also makes me feel guilty because I know he cares but why is he so insecure?"

"Well I did hear from my brother that you were the most requested maid this year in the café, not unlike the year prior which is why not only were you sent to get more groceries but also why Matsuoka made sure your break was at the same time as his; apparently he didn't want to leave you out of his sight with the customers." Mikoshiba said looking at the ceiling as if it would help his memory "Gou-kun said you made quite an impression on the Iwatobi team as well."

"It still is not enough reason to be so insecure, I have never given him a reason not to trust me and yet it seems like he doesn't." Aiichirou's blue eyes lost their shine and Seijirou couldn't help but feel guilt hit him like a hammer so he quickly leaned towards his kouhai and spoke.

"Come on! That doesn't mean he doesn't trust you!" The red head tried to get his companion to look at him when said male bowed his head "It's just that he's scared you know? Scared that you could leave him for someone else because he feels like he's not good enough!" When Ai didn't seem to be any calmer he tried again with the technique that had worked so far "That's true, you know? Gou-kun told me once that the reason why she can get so jealous sometimes is because, even though I don't seem to pay attention to other girls, I'm so nice and have such nice muscles –in her words, not mine- that girls feel attracted to me and that some of them are much prettier than her and could win me over because she might not be what I'm looking for! _And_ she says her brother was the one who made her that way because he always acts so jealous of her and he's constantly scared that he will be left behind by the people he cares! He was even jealous of Ryugazaki-kun at some point for joining his group of friends!"

"Really?" Finally the shorter swimmer lifted his head, he didn't seem depressed anymore but inquisitive and that was way better in Sei's opinion.

"Yeah! So, likely, he acts this way because he fears you might find someone better in his opinion and because he thinks he doesn't deserve you, not because he thinks you could leave him as if he were nothing!" The redhead assured nodding animatedly.

"But… That still doesn't make sense." Ai said with a frown which the older student mirrored not understanding where that came from.

"What do you mean?"

"Why would Rin-senpai believe I could ever find anyone better than him for me?" Nitori answered with a question of his own "I mean, I spent almost an entire year trying to get him to like me the way I liked him and I finally managed to do it, somehow, and he still thinks I might gain interest in someone else and leave him?"

"Yeah, well-"

"You understand how crazy that sounds, right?!" The college student was the one surprised now; where had that voice come from? It sounded too loud for it to be coming from the duckling "You had been trying to get Gou-san to give you a chance for over a year so you _must_ know how I feel, right, Senpai? That she fears you might just up and leave her for someone else?"

"… You know what? Yeah, I do!" Mikoshiba recovered quickly from his previous shock and caught up with the younger boy in no time "I kept insisting for over a year and I _finally_ got her to say yes and now she thinks I might just move my interest onto someone else? Doesn't she realize that I picked her for a reason?"

"I know, right?" Ai agreed leaning towards his former captain "It's not as if we didn't have enough reasons to like them! Like, I really like how Rin-senpai is always looking after me and makes sure I'm always healthy and happy and does everything in his power to ensure that!"

"Gou-kun does that too!" The golden-eyed swimmer declared "And she also sends me texts to make sure I don't overwork myself at school and reminds me not to let up my swimming practice so I don't go out of shape and can keep up with my team."

"Yeah, that's just so nice!" The duckling nodded "Also the little details when less expected! I've come to discover Rin-senpai has a really romantic side."

"So does Gou-kun, she always has some surprise for me whenever we have a date." The older teen relaxed his posture so his elbows rested on his knees, he was back to smiling widely like he had done moments before "Actually, she planned today's date all on her own, I know nothing about it."

"Rin-senpai is also the one to plan most of our dates and he always makes sure I enjoy myself." Ai said with a tender smile "He always puts me before himself."

"Gou-kun also does a lot for me, sometimes even when I know she's tired or has had problems she tries to make our meetings special and often she ends up falling asleep after our date on our way back to her home." Seijirou's smile also reflected affection for his own significant other "I know I can be a bit of a handful and yet she puts up with me and I'm sure she gives more effort into making me happy than focusing on her."

"See? And after all that they still get scared of the possibility we might pick someone else over them?" The blue-eyed teen asked although it was actually a rhetorical question "That's crazy-They're crazy! No offense to Gou-san."

"None taken, seeing it from that perspective they _are_ crazy." The college student said with a chuckle "Besides, she won't hear about this conversation; all she'll know is that your relationship with her brother couldn't be better."

"Thanks, Mikoshiba-senpai." Ai said honestly "I'll also make sure to speak highly of you to Rin-sen-"

"I got 89!" The room's door burst open showing a rather elated otter jump into the room displaying proudly a test on his hand, his thrilled expression didn't change even as his eyes rested on the person sitting at his desk "Nii-chan! What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, of course!" The older of the brothers jumped from his seat and ruffled the first-year's hair playfully, if a little roughly, and patted him on the back "89 is great, you did a good job, Momotarou!"

"It was all thanks to Ai-senpai's help!" The back-stroke swimmer claimed walking up to his senpai and throwing an arm around his shoulders "I owe you a huge one, senpai!"

"It was nothing, Momo-kun." The second-grader assured trying to break free from the sudden hug but the redhead wouldn't let go, they heard a boisterous laugh from the door and both turned to look at the source –Ai with more than a little struggle- only to find the college student striking his trademark confident pose with his fists resting on his hips.

"I'd say you both deserve a reward, let's go out for lunch, I'll pay this time."

"Oh no, senpai, I-"

"Yay!" Momo exclaimed finally letting go of his beloved senpai and interrupting him in the process "Nii-chan is paying! Come on, Ai-senpai!"

"B-but…"

"Come on, Nitori." Seijirou was the one to interrupt this time "You aren't just going to leave me now, are you?"

Ai saw the smirk on his senpai's face and instantly smiled back, nodding at last.

"Very well, but we better come back early or you will have some sharp teeth to face." And so the silver-haired male made his way to Seijirou's side, leaving a rather confused Momo looking at them from his position next to Ai's chair.

"Am I missing something?"

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I still have some ideas to write about in this fic but not all of them are assured to be written yet, however, if you have any kind of suggestion I will gladly hear it. Maybe your ideas will be better than mine and decide to write them instead or maybe you have similar ideas to mine but I'd like to hear your ideas and/or opinions.

**Next Chapter: About self-assertive boyfriends ...**


	6. About self-assertive boyfriends

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be.

**Chapter summary: **Rei believes they're being taken advantage of, Makoto agrees but they both think it might not be so bad like this.

**Chapter title:**About self-assertive boyfriends...

**Couples: **HaruMako/Reigisa

**A/N: **One eternity later I finally got around finishing this episode, actually I had a bit of a difficult time deciding how to develop this episode; I had the ideas I wanted to write about but I couldn't decide the best way to write them, I was all over the place with this but I think I finally managed to write it in a somewhat logical way so here it is… I think.

I actually really love the relationship Makoto and Rei have so writing them interacting was cute but when it comes to talking about Nagisa and Haruka in a similar manner I had to try to keep Rei and Makoto as much in character as I could when finding common ground in their relationships, it was interesting though, try to find as much similarities between the Penguin and the Dolphin of the series as you can on your own; it'll give you something to think about for a bit. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.

**Reminders:**

**1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

**2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.**

**3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.**

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**Chapter 6:****About self-assertive boyfriends...**

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"Thank you for your purchase, come back soon!" Were the words that Rei and Makoto heard as they walked out of the convenience store carrying a bag each with snacks and drinks for their swimming team including their manager, coach and supervisor and it's not really that they had a hard time doing it but…

"This is the third Friday in a row we have been assigned to come to the convenience store." Rei commented fixing his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his free hand, his companion turned to him and smiled kindly.

"Maybe but it's only been Friday's"

"That's because we _only_ come to the convenience store on Friday towards the end of practice." The younger teen reasoned turning towards the brunet "I thought we were supposed to have a rotation system so all members got assigned to buy the snacks and drinks the same amount of times each month."

"Well Ama-chan-sensei and Coach Sasabe don't always ask for things from the store and they stay watching over the members still training so we agreed they didn't have to come and Gou-chan brings us home-made snacks every so often-"

"Pardon me for interrupting, Makoto-senpai." Rei spoke up trying to sound as polite as he could, he really hated interrupting people, even more so someone he respected as much as Makoto but either his indirect sentences were being misinterpreted or ignored and he wanted to have this conversation before getting back to Iwatobi High School "I am aware of the reasons why they are not included in the rotation and I agree with them but neither Haruka-senpai nor Nagisa-kun have been assigned to come for weeks."

"Well that is true but I really don't mind doing this." The orca assured still smiling before frowning lightly "Do you? Because if you do, you don't need to come every time, Rei; I can come alone."

"Of course not, Makoto-senpai!" Rei said quickly raising his hands and waving them in front of him, making sure he didn't let go of his bag at any moment "It's not like that at all! It's just… The team agreed on something and, well, this is the third time they've done this so far this year and I believe we have the right to tell our teammates to follow the agreement so we also have our chance to stay behind for some more practice like they do."

"… I understand." Makoto said after a moment, he stopped walking and hummed to himself as if thinking hard on what the second-year had just said. Rei stopped next to him and stayed quiet, waiting for the taller male to continue "Actually, you're right; it's kind of unfair that they do this if we agreed on rotating."

"Yes, it is not that I mind coming to the store but just the fact that we agreed on something and they are not following through, it's as if they actually waited for it to be our turn together and then found a way to make us be the ones coming every Friday." The bespectacled swimmer said sure of himself for a moment but just a moment, when what he had just said replayed in his head, his confidence sunk a little bit "Is that unreasonable?"

"Not really, I remember the last two times it happened it was also the week after it was Haru's turn to come with me, then it was your turn to come with me and the next week it's supposed to be your turn with Nagisa." Makoto said thoughtfully "And we kept going every week until we either didn't have the training here or Rin and the others came and we all went out together instead; after that we started over with the rotation and now we're back to it."

"Precisely!" The butterfly agreed with a smile, satisfied with his senpai's words "Nagisa-kun and Haruka-senpai have manipulated us into coming here three weeks in a row while they stayed behind and we let them."

"But how do they do it?" The brunet asked aloud restarting his walk, Rei catching up to him in a second "I mean, the only thing Haru said is that he wanted to be in the water a little longer and wasn't ready to get out just yet… And that's what he told me last week as well."

"Nagisa-kun told me today that he would be too cold if he stepped out of the pool and didn't want to get sick." The second-grader commented with a finger to his chin, looking pensive "Last week he told me the pop quiz we had earlier that day had stressed him out and wanted to stay in the pool longer to calm himself."

"Do you think Nagisa is lying?" Makoto questioned curiously but the other male shook his head.

"Not really lying but over-reacting is more like it; making the issue bigger than it actually is and just making an assertion on an assumption." Rei explained "But he tends to make his points work somehow like when he asks me to help him finish his homework."

"I imagine that happens often." The backstroke swimmer commented with a chuckle.

"It does and I like to help him but it's now common day occurrence that he chooses whether he stays the night in my home or if it would be in my best interest to spend the night in his home instead because it has gotten too late for either of us to leave."

"That's nice." Purple eyes met with green ones, the former incredulous expression made the amused green turn into confused.

"It would be if it weren't for the fact that we only finish studying late because Nagisa-kun is constantly getting distracted and getting me distracted either by taking breaks, claiming to be hungry, wanting to listen to music or watching something on either television or the internet." Rei sighed "Some way or another he always manages to convince me to follow him through his ideas."

"Nagisa has a way to convince others to do what he wants." Makoto said with a shrug but smiling sympathetically none-the-less "That's just the way he is."

"Did he learn that from Haruka-senpai?" Now it was the third-year student the bemused one.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Haruka-senpai, too, has a way to convince others to do what he wants." Rei answered looking at his friend "Most of the time at least."

"Haru doesn't do that." Makoto defended and the blue-haired teen looked incredulously at him once again, stopping to cross his arms over his chest, the brunet stopped in front of him.

"Makoto-senpai, you know I respect you and Haruka-senpai but you cannot tell me Haruka-senpai has never made you follow his wishes against your better judgment." The green-eyed male actually blushed upon hearing that and the younger swimmer once again felt satisfied with his statement.

"I-it's not as if he does anything without my consent, you know?" The young Tachibana said quickly and for a moment Rei wondered if his words actually had caused an impact big enough to make the male opposite to him so nervous all of the sudden "I mean, he just asks if we could do something or if I could do something and then I decide if I agree or not."

"Are you sure it's just about favors?" The butterfly asked with a raised eyebrow "Because skipping duties because he "_wasn't ready to get out of the pool_" doesn't sound like the most reasonable excuse."

"Huh?" Makoto stayed dumbfounded, his blush began to disappear and Rei wondered if the brunet had gotten lost at some point in the conversation or if he was genuinely confused on what they had been talking about "Ah! You mean about that!"

"Yes?" Obviously, it had been the latter.

"Well, you know how Haru is with water:" Makoto laughed nervously but the shorter youth didn't seem to find it funny so the brunet just sighed "Ok, yes, Haru _can _be pretty stubborn with some things and can try to get his way often but he doesn't do it with bad intent."

"I am not saying that." Rei shook his head "They just are confident on what they want and what they like and we just let them get their way because…."

"Because we care about them." The orca finished when he saw Rei blush and trail off, knowing already that talking about feelings with him wasn't always easy to Rei, the blue-haired teen nodded silently "Although you have to admit Nagisa's confident personality has its perks."

"I admit I would have never done half of the things I've done if it weren't for Nagisa-kun's insistence." The second-grader admitted, his blush dissipating now that the embarrassment passed "And that includes joining the swimming club, I may not be here right now if he hadn't been so set on getting me to join."

"And to think it all started because you have a feminine name." Makoto laughed starting his walk again "It seemed silly at first but look where we're at now; Nagisa had the idea of starting the club over and he was the one who found you and it worked out great."

"It's a fifty-fifty kind of situation, whatever it is he plans it can either go really well or horribly bad." Rei caught up with his senpai and fell into step with him "I love being part of the swimming team, that was good, but I still remember the day Nagisa-kun and I got banned from that coffee shop for two months because Nagisa-kun tried to make a bet with the owner about eating all the pastries on display in under ten minutes."

"Did he lose then?"

"No, the owner never accepted the bet and Nagisa-kun tried to convince him by jumping over the counter and invading his personal space which resulted in the man tripping and pushing a barista who spilled coffee over the counter and onto a costumer; it was really bad." The bespectacled male recounted with a tired expression "They were going to ban us for life but I managed to talk the owner into just giving us two months, I had to pay for the spilt coffee, apologize to the costumer who luckily wasn't injured, apologize to the barista, drag Nagisa-kun outside and had him pay me back when we got to his home, it was not a pleasing experience."

"It doesn't sound like one." Makoto said honestly "I can't remember the number of times we've been asked to leave a place because Haru tried to get into a fishing tank or a pond, I _do_ remember however the one time we got kicked out of a family restaurant two years ago because Haru got into the kitchen to cook his own mackerel."

"Wait, Haruka-senpai actually trespassed a restaurant's kitchen to cook himself?" Rei asked somewhat surprised.

"He said the cook had done an insulting job with the mackerel and he was going to cook it properly because mackerel deserved a better treatment and… Well, you know how Haru can be about mackerel." The taller swimmer laughed nervously "So Haru walks in there before I can stop him and pushes the cook aside and away from the fish he's cooking and completely ignores him when he starts telling Haru to get out; I am just calling Haru over from the kitchen door but can't manage to get him out. The manager comes in with two waiters and between the three of them have to get Haru out of the kitchen, I quickly grab Haru's arm once he's within my reach and start apologizing while he still tries to escape me; the manager says we have to get out or he'll call the police so I drag Haru outside with me and until we're a few blocks away when he finally stops struggling."

"…And this happened two years ago?" Perhaps Rei should have been _more_ stunned by the story but knowing the hydrophilic boy for a year and a half this was nothing that out of the ordinary.

"It was our third date." Makoto admitted with a sigh "We didn't actually get banned but we haven't gone back since and I don't think we will for a long time still."

"And here I thought no-one would be as invasive as Nagisa-kun." Rei would be lying if he said that story didn't make him feel a little better.

"Haru has very strong opinions when it comes to things he cares about." The brunet comments looking up for a moment as the school's entrance came into view "But that's not always bad, he has been able to get us out of trouble before and… Well…"

"Well?" The butterfly prompted and the third-grader's face flushed making Rei regret asking "I'm-"

"We might not be together right now." Makoto finally finished "As in, we might not be dating if it weren't for his confidence."

"Really?" Rei was quite bemused by that and the tone in which he said that one word made it perfectly clear "Sorry but, well, you have been friends since you were very young and Rin-san and Nagisa-kun said you have been acting like a couple since forever and also you have an easier time with your feelings than Haruka-senpai so I thought that it had been you who had made the relationship official."

"Don't apologize, Nagisa and Rin were also shocked when they found that out." Makoto smiled, still a little flushed "For a few weeks after we graduated middle school I _had_ been planning on asking Haru if he'd be interested in dating me but I always panicked and was never able to bring myself to say it but one day, on our first summer of high school, Haru just told me that we_ 'should make the relationship official already'_."

"Just like that?" Rei couldn't help but chuckle, his elder chuckled with him and nodded, they were close to the changing rooms by now; the walk back went by too fast.

"Yeah, apparently everyone, including him, thought we were already dating but we just hadn't made it official so we might as well just do it." The backstroke swimmer shrugged one shoulder "So we did."

"Well, it was similar to how Nagisa-kun asked me out." Rei said entering the changing room, he kept his voice low so they couldn't be heard by the people on the pool, they could hear the blond arguing with Gou over something all the way from there but it sounded playful as usual. Both males set their products down and started undressing down to their swimsuits.

"What did he do?" Makoto asked genuinely curious, Rei remembered they had never told anyone how they got together just that they _were_ together and no-one ever asked any questions, to him at least.

"He said _'Hey, Rei-chan, be my boyfriend'_." The shorter teen said with a roll of his eyes "I asked him to repeat that, he did, I told him I needed time and he kept repeating that phrase every moment we were alone together for the next three days giving me close to no time to think and I actually only had time to think about our relationship _after_ I said yes."

"That's Nagisa, all right." Makoto laughed, closing his locker door and picking his bag back up, his friend following suit "But if it weren't for that, if they weren't who they were and did what they did we wouldn't be with them, we wouldn't be here and… I don't know, I really love it, the way we are now."

Rei smiled and both walked to the door leading to the pool finding all the people that accompanied them in the club enjoying the time left for them still in the pool and it just felt like walking back home.

"So do I, Makoto-senpai."

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**Next Chapter: About the little siblings' boyfriends...**


	7. About the little siblings

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be.

**Chapter summary: **When it comes to younger siblings, seeing them date someone might be one of the worst things for overprotective older brothers.

**Chapter title:**About the little siblings' boyfriends...

**Couples: **Rin [SeiGou]/Seijirou [SouMomo]

**A/N: **Ok finally had the chance to update this fic. I thought this was pretty fun to write, Seijirou always looks so happy and excited, having him in Rin's place was entertaining to say the least. I hope I kept them in character, I always try to keep them as true to their personality as I can based on the chapters so I did my best. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.

**Reminders:**

**1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

**2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.**

**3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.**

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**Chapter 7:****About the little siblings' boyfriends...**

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"I'm sorry, Matsuoka!" Truth be told, that was not what Rin was expecting to hear when the former captain of the Samezuka swimming team had asked for a word with the third-grader with the most serious face Rin has seen on the college student in a while.

It was a weekend, Sousuke and Momotarou happened to be out on a date so he had the room for himself and Ai had gone back home to visit his family that weekend so Rin had opted for staying in and get some reading done on leadership; the book had been sitting on his bookcase for about two weeks and this could have been just the greatest time to start it and maybe go for a swim later. However, just as he was getting to the second page of his book, someone knocked on his door and to say the third-grader was surprised to see his former schoolmate on his doorstep would be an understatement considering Seijirou had attempted to stay as far away from him as possible since Rin found out about his sister's relationship with the college student of which he didn't approve.

"Huh?" Now, having the taller male sitting on Sousuke's chair and bowing his head in apology asking for the shark's forgiveness, Rin wondered whether he had fallen asleep just as he started his book and was now dreaming or if he had somehow entered an alternate dimension where the big oaf actually had some conscience.

"I'm sorry!" Mikoshiba repeated still with his head bowed "I'm sorry for not taking you seriously and thinking you were overreacting!"

"…What?" What did he mean by that? Did he actually think maybe Rin wasn't doing a good job as captain and had been lying to him? Or maybe he was talking about his general attitude towards swimming, thinking he was overdoing it still? Had members of the team told him anything behind Rin's back because they were afraid to talk to him directly?

"I promise you I will never, ever take lightly what you say to me about my relationship with Gou-kun and I will make sure to be the very best boyfriend she could ever have and always respect her and listen to her and support her and-"

"Hold it right there!" The high-school student interrupted before his visitor would run out of breath and also because he didn't like where the conversation appeared to be going "What are you talking about? Did you do something to Gou?!"

"No!" Seijirou's golden eyes finally met his to take a defensive stance raising his hands in front of his chest, considering he was still sitting down while Rin had stood up in order to look more intimidating it did give him a more submissive appearance "No! Nothing of the sort, I've been the best I can."

"Really, now?" The current swimming team captain asked, an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"I promise." Seijirou assured before chuckling "She'd kill me before you even get the chance if I do anything wrong, you know that."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true." Rin conceded knowing perfectly well his sister had a temper worse than his and could do a lot of damage for such a tiny body "Then what is the problem?"

"It's just… I always thought you were exaggerating, you know?" The taller of the two said as Rin took his seat on his chair again "Up to this day I've never had to be in your place since my sister has shown no interest whatsoever in any guy so far and has rejected every single love confession she's received, she's set on the idea of graduating college before looking for a boyfriend so I thought I wouldn't have to think about any guy getting too close for a few years now and even then I thought I'd be really cool with it if the guy was anything like me."

"Oh?" _Now_ the sharp-toothed teen understood where the conversation was actually going and he didn't feel that comfortable with it either.

"But, as luck would have it, it wasn't my little sister I had to worry about."

"You're worried about Momo's relationship?" It was a dumb question but Rin found it hard to believe that the guy in front of him was actually worried about the youngest Mikoshiba's romantic relationship with Sousuke Yamazaki.

"Wouldn't you be?" The former captain asked seriously "He looks fearsome, he's huge, he's older than Momotarou-"

"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?" Rin interrupted the former captain folding his arms over his chest.

"_That's_ exactly what I mean, I get it now!" Mikoshiba exclaimed pointing a finger to his companion's face, the gesture wasn't appreciated but it was kind of expected "All that time I'd been trying to get Gou-kun to give me a chance you were doing whatever you could to keep me away from her and I never understood what was so wrong about me that you didn't want me dating your sister."

"And now?"

"And now I understand; maybe I know I can be a good boyfriend and I do care about her a lot so I never saw anything wrong with me but _you_ didn't see that, _you_ saw a guy who could be a risk for your sister and you wanted to keep her safe."

"Glad to know you see things my way now." Rin felt pretty satisfied with those words, sure he had come to… allow the relationship but he still didn't like it and hearing that the guy he had a problem with had the exact same problem now was kind of cathartic.

"Not quite." The college student said with a frown, causing the younger male to frown himself "Even if you don't like me, you at least know me but I know very little of Momotarou's boyfriend and I understand he happens to be your best friend since childhood."

"…Yeah?" Rin rarely got nervous around Seijirou but the expression he was wearing told him the older male was going to get serious on him.

"What are his intentions with my brother?"

"… Why are you asking _me_ that?" Way to get serious on him "Wouldn't you rather have this conversation with Sousuke rather than me? I didn't go and ask Momo what your intentions with my sister are, I asked _you_ directly."

"It's not the same." Seijirou insisted still frowning "You saw me courting your sister, you saw me interacting with her, you saw everything I tried until she finally accepted me but I don't know how this overly-muscular friend of yours managed to woo my little brother, I didn't even know he was bi until he called me up and said he had a boyfriend and I doubt he knew it himself before this guy appeared."

"Well I don't know about his sexuality but I do have to tell you it was Momo who chased Sousuke, not the other way around." The orange haired student seemed honestly surprised after hearing that.

"Are you serious?" Rin nodded "Ok, _that_ is unexpected."

"Any guy would have been unexpected I think." The current captain said with a shrug "I mean, even with your muscles and all, I never thought Gou would date someone like you since I thought her type would be more like Makoto or even Sousuke himself but you were a huge surprise because of your personality."

"Well, maybe I'm just saying that because I also assumed Momo would have a type even in guys." Mikoshiba admitted while rubbing the back of his head "Because he liked cute girls I just thought he'd have a thing for cute boys as well."

"Cute boys?"

"You know, like Nitori." Rin felt his brow twitch at those words but he reminded himself Momo never really showed interest in anyone other than Sousuke, as far as males went, and he let it go "Then he shows me a picture of him and Yamazaki together and, when I recognized him from the tournaments, I couldn't believe he had picked someone so… Manly."

"Ok, I guess I see why it surprises you." The younger teen said with a sigh "I can assure you though, Momo was the one who made the decision to date Sousuke."

"Then, does that mean Yamazaki never actually liked Momotarou and just went out with him to amuse him?" Seijirou's face took once again that annoyed expression he wore moments ago, Rin knew he had to say something or Sousuke would likely be dead soon.

"I thought Gou was doing that with you." Rin said with a smirk before turning serious himself "Ok, I shouldn't be telling you this, it should be Sousuke, but… Yeah, he did kind of mention he was interested at some point but he never tried anything because he thought Momo liked girls."

"Really?" Once again, the shorter teen nodded in response "I suppose that's better then."

"Trust me when I say their relationship is fully functional." The shark assured with what he hoped was a reassuring smile "Even when they have just been going out for seven weeks."

"Well, I have been going out with your sister for almost twelve weeks and we are also in a functioning relationship." Seijirou said with a wide smile, one Rin wanted to wipe off that goofy face but resisted the urge to do so.

"Yeah, well, I don't really feel like listening to that so if you want to have a real talk about your brother and his boyfriend you _should_ talk to your brother and his boyfriend so, feel free to wait for them here if you want as long as you don't touch anything; I'm going to the pool."

"I'm serious though, you know?" The orange-haired male said before the younger teen could move from his sitting spot "I don't know anything about him other than what little Momotarou and you have told me and it's not nearly enough to feel comfortable with this."

"It's kind of your fault." The oldest Matsuoka sibling said crossing his arms over his chest and giving the college student a disapproving look "It's been seven weeks and you have made no effort in having a good conversation with Sousuke."

"I've been meaning to but wouldn't it be weird just to pop up and question my _brother's_ boyfriend?" Seijirou said unsurely "This is the kind of things you do for a sister, not a brother."

"Well Momo _is_ dating a guy and I think it's more about that than it is your sibling." Rin explained thoughtfully "If your sister suddenly told you she's dating a girl I doubt you'd think you have to question her about the relationship."

"Yeah, that may be the case." The former captain acknowledged before groaning "That kinda makes me sound sexist."

"Don't feel bad though, everyone has different thoughts on this." The shark assured with a small smile "Nagisa's older sisters were delighted to know his brother was going out with Rei and just accepted it but Rei's older brother had a full-on interrogation session with Nagisa."

"Really? He was worried about that little blond guy?"

"Well, you don't know the "little blond guy" like we do." Rin chuckled "But yeah, Nagisa was the one who had to answer to a sibling so I think it wouldn't actually be weird if you went to talk to Sousuke about Momo."

"…Matsuoka, I'm going to ask you something and I need you to be honest with me." That voice was so serious and the college student's face so determined that the only thing the younger teen was able to do was nod in response "Does it get easier?"

"Does what get easier?"

"Seeing your baby sibling dating someone." The taller male answered to what Rin replied without a second thought.

"No." Before Seijirou could say a word, Rin continued "I saw you attempting to get my sister to give you a chance for over a year and I've seen you two having an official relationship for almost three months and it hasn't gotten any easier… But I have come to terms with the fact it will never get easier and I have to accept that Gou's decisions are her own and, as much as I hate to admit it, this decision seems to make her happy and I'm ok with that."

"Is that so?" The high school student nodded once with as much of an expressionless face as he could, he had just admitted to his former schoolmate that he knew Gou was happy with him and that he agreed with their relationship because of that, he did _not_ need to give him more satisfaction than that, even less when Seijirou was already looking proud as hell.

"Don't get cocky, you still have your own problems to attend to." As if on cue, a loud, animated voice was heard nearing the door and it was a voice all-too-familiar for both youths in the room. Rin smirked and looked back at his visitor who looked back at him with a strained expression. The sharp-toothed boy quickly stood up and ran up to his door, opening it and peeking down the hall to the arriving couple "Hey, guys! I'm so glad you're back."

"Are you ok, Rin?" Sousuke asked upon noticing the wicked smile his best friend had on his face, they made it to him before he answered.

"Just perfect, why don't you come in?" Rin motioned to the third-graders' room with his head even though half of his body was half-way through the threshold as if hiding the inside of the room from their view, what the door didn't cover at least.

"Actually, we were going to be staying at my room tonight since Ai-senpai is not here." Momotarou answered shamelessly and Rin just knew he had to get out of that room soon if he wanted to live so he quickly opened the door fully, allowing the newcomers to see just who was glaring daggers at them from Sousuke's desk chair. If Seijirou's face had been amusing before, the deer-in-the-headlights look the loving couple had on their faces was downright hilarious but the swimming team captain had enough common sense not to laugh to their faces.

"You see, we have a visitor who would _love_ to have a word with you two and it's a personal matter soooooo…" Faster than he's ever been out of water, Rin took his gym bag, slung it over his shoulder and exited the room "I'm going to the pool, see ya!"

Literally running down the hall and to the lobby, Rin was very much aware Sousuke would kill him if he survived his experience with Mikoshiba but setting that up after opening up in a way he didn't want to all because of his friend's relationship with their kouhai was really satisfactory and he could already tell the earful he was sure to get that night from the couple would be well-worth it.

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**Next Chapter: About possessive boyfriends...**


	8. About possessive boyfriends

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be.

**Chapter summary: **Finding common ground with others is important, finding out the common ground lies in the marks on your necks can create some strong bonds even if they can lead to more marks.

**Chapter title:**About possessive boyfriends...

**Couples: **Rintori/HaruMako

**A/N: **Can't lie, I had an easy time writing the second half but the first part… For the life of me I couldn't find a way to start it, I knew what I wanted to mention and how to end it but I never thought about the beginning, other authors and readers must be asking themselves how does that happen and it happens very often BUT I managed to put something together… I think… Hope you enjoy it!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.

**Reminders:**

**1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

**2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.**

**3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.**

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**Chapter 8:****About possessive boyfriends...**

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It was a windy Autumn Saturday morning, a perfect day for swimming… Indoors at Iwatobi Swimming Club Returns; being lucky enough to have the owner as their coach and friend allowed the Iwatobi Swimming team to get some practice done even when they couldn't do it back in their school, it didn't matter either if the building was supposed to be closed due to the owner being out of town because they had the key, or if the Iwatobi Team had invited over four friends from Samezuka because they hadn't see them in a while.

"Cannon ball!" Nagisa and Momotarou yelled as they jumped together into the pool, splashing Rei and Sousuke who were standing by the edge of the pool timing Haruka and Rin respectively, fortunately the swimming boys were well at the other end of the pool and weren't bothered by the diving teens.

"Nagisa-kun! We're supposed to be practicing!" The bespectacled teenager reprimanded his teammate with a frown, which was met with a pout.

"But Rei-chan, Mako-chan and Ai-chan said they weren't feeling well enough to swim so I thought we could play instead!" Nagisa whined pointing at his team captain and the after-mentioned breaststroke swimmer who were re-arranging the equipment that had been used the day prior for classes and that Coach Goro had asked Makoto to, please, take care of the next day so he could catch his train.

"If one member of a team can't train it doesn't mean you can't improve your own individual times." Sousuke said with a shake of his head, his racing companions 20 meters from finishing the lap.

"But, Sousuke-senpai, it's Saturday and they invited us to hang out!" Momo complained also pouting "It's not our fault Rin-senpai decided he wanted to keep racing even today like the workaholic he is!"

"Momo!" Before the backstroke swimmer could turn to the source of the voice, his head was captured in a vice-like grip by none other than the workaholic himself, the hand of his captain was doing its hardest to squeeze his head like an orange "Quit lazing around and start warming up!"

"But senpaaaiii!"

"No 'but's, if you don't do as I say I'll have you doing the last race of the year against me right now!" The threat was enough to have Momo out of the pool and stretching in less than ten seconds, the crimson gaze turned to the penguin who smiled innocently at his friend "Well?"

"I'm going, Rin-Rin." Nagisa said dejectedly, getting out of the water and joining the otter on his stretches. Rin sighed and turned to the lane next to him.

"Hey, Haru we better-" However, there was no Haru next to him, said male was already halfway through another lap "Oi! Haru!"

"It looks like they're having fun, don't they?" Makoto commented, looking longingly at the pool where his team was and then directing his eyes to the silver-haired student helping him with the kickboards "I'm sorry you're helping me with this instead of being with them, Nitori-kun."

"There's no problem, Tachibana-san; I volunteered to help you." Ai assured with a kind smile, similar to the one Makoto was wearing although the backstroke swimmer couldn't help but notice the light blush adorning the younger's cheeks and the fact said boy's blue eyes would look everywhere but back at him "I have to make myself useful if I can't swim."

"I haven't asked if you're feeling ok." The brunet said concernedly to his companion "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, I have nothing serious." The breaststroke swimmer shook his head with a chuckle "Actually… If I'm honest, I… I kinda think we have the same reason for not swimming today."

"What do you mean?" Makoto asked nervously while placing the kickboards on a shelf, wondering if the younger boy really knew his reason but he couldn't, right?

"You might want to zip up your jacket a bit higher, there's a… yeah, a little higher on your neck." Ai was blushing profusely while saying this, his gaze immersed in his shoes so he couldn't catch the tomato impersonation that Makoto was doing but he did see the three boards that fell on the floor in front of him. The green-eyed youth didn't waste time in zipping up his jacket as high as it would go, hiding away the evidence he had been attempting to hide from his friends; the reason he decided he wouldn't change into his swimming suit and swim with everyone else that day.

"It- It's not what it looks like!" The orca said, waving his hands in front of him in a dismissive gesture but he couldn't control his flaming cheeks or nervous stutter for the life of him "It's a bug bite!"

"Tachibana-san, forgive me for being so bold but, I know exactly what that is." Ai finally dared to look back at his superior even if he still couldn't control the pink on his face, handing the fallen items back to the green-eyed youth "And if I may say, I also know who, when and why… The where and how I'd rather not know."

"Wait, what?" The third-grader was honestly curious now, was Nitori serious about all that?

"It was obviously Nanase-san, it was done Thursday after the joint practice and it was because I slipped in the showers and fell, dragging you down with me when I grabbed your arm in panic." The duckling guessed, playing nervously with his hands "I want to apologize for that again by the way, you could have gotten hurt."

"Don't mind, I'm ok." The taller male guaranteed "But, what makes you think that was the reason?"

"Nanase-san and Rin-senpai walked in on us still on the floor." Ai explained, any color that had faded from his face came back full-force and so did Makoto's blush remembering they were, indeed, found on the ground by Rin and Haru and it wouldn't have been that bad if it hadn't been for the fact it practically looked like Makoto had Ai trapped against the floor which was really, really awkward.

"Oh, that… So…"

"I know Nanase-san is very protective of you." The confusion that statement made the brunet feel must have expressed on his face because Nitori continued "Um, I don't want to seem nosy but Nagisa-san has told me that Nanase-san can get jealous easily at times so I should make an effort to stay on his good side."

"Nagisa said that?" Makoto frowned lightly and turned his gaze to the blond who was, by now, swimming laps along with the rest of their friends, Sousuke acting as some kind of coach; they all seemed too entertained to pay any attention to him. The backstroke swimmer sighed and rearranged the kickboards "Don't pay attention to him, Haru is just a bit hard to understand for most people but he's really nice."

"Oh, I know he's a really nice person but-" The silver-haired student stopped in mid-sentence, his face taking a shocked expression "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you this."

"What is it?" Makoto asked, his task finished allowing him to focus on the shorter boy "I promise I won't get mad."

"It's just that, I once asked Rin-senpai if he felt he was a little… Possessive sometimes and he said he was nothing compared to Nanase-san with you." Ai replied honestly "Is that not true?"

"Rin is just exaggerating." Makoto assured smiling kindly but there was something in his expression that screamed anxiety "Sure, Haru can be a bit immature at times but he doesn't get jealous or anything."

"So it's a lie that he only came to see you working after you mentioned reuniting with an old friend Nanase-san isn't fond of because he has feelings for you?"

"Ok, first of all, Kisumi doesn't have feelings for me; he's just a friend." The brunet defended immediately "Second of all, I invited Haru to come and he said he would think about it and when he did come it was because I forgot my bento that morning and my mother asked him to bring it to me."

"But Rin-senpai said Nanase-san would come often after that day, either alone or with your siblings."

"Well… yeah… but that's because he liked this place! He liked swimming here!" The orca finished, pretty satisfied with his explanation.

"Oh, well, that's good for you then." The younger swimmer sounded really disappointed and it made Makoto feel bad even if he didn't know the reason "It's just, I thought you would be able to help me."

"Help you with what?" The Iwatobi student asked, instantly drawn to try to help in any way he could, it was his nature.

"You see, some weeks ago Samezuka had a joint practice with another school and some students asked me for pointers but, when we got back to our school, Rin-senpai was acting weird and a little bit moody and then, a few days later, Momo-kun told me he asked him if I had said anything about those guys." Nitori explained with a sigh "And he also stayed too close during the first hours of the Maid Café, he only got calmer after I got back from shopping with you but that night he kept telling me how he didn't like that I was the most requested maid."

"So, you want to get him to stop being so jealous?" Makoto guessed with a half-nod, understanding what he was saying.

"I just wanted to know if there was anything I could really do about it and I had hoped you'd understand what it was like to be with someone like that since you have, well, a bite on your neck," Ai then reached to his turtleneck sweater and lowered a bit to show his own neck, branding a couple of purple spots on either side of the pale column "Like I do."

"Wait, are those-"

"From Thursday after the joint practice." The silver-haired student finished with a nod "I thought, since they had the exact same way of… _claiming_, or something, that maybe you could have some kind of advice as to how to lower their insecurity?"

"Well that's actually kind of hard." The brunet finally gave up in trying to hide anything, the younger male was honestly worried and asking for help and he would be lying if he said he had no idea of what the second-grader was talking about so there was nothing to lose "If I can be honest, we've been together for so long I think I've gotten used to it by now."

"So Nanase-san has always acted this way?" Nitori asked cocking his head to the side "Even before you were dating?"

"I couldn't believe it either, I always thought Haru just had a hard time making friends and he was afraid of interacting with strangers but, after I saw him eating with Kisumi and the rest in middle school, I kind of questioned where we actually stood in our friendship if he was perfectly capable of interacting with others." The orca confessed "But we got closer after that and I didn't see anything wrong with it, I didn't actually notice the way he was with me until we started going out."

"What made you realize he was the… possessive type?" The breaststroke swimmer asked, practically whispering the last two words as if afraid anyone would listen to them. Just out of curiosity, Makoto turned to look back at their friends, the shorter boy followed suit and they found Haru actually out of the pool looking at them while pretending to listen to Sousuke who was pointing at something on a paper sheet, Rin was also stealing glances over Rei's shoulder while giving pointers to the blue-haired boy about his backstroke –from what Makoto could guess at least- so the green-eyed youth smiled and waved at them before moving towards the broom closet to get a broom and a mop for the locker rooms, he caught Nitori imitating his actions before following him a couple of steps behind as if assuring them they weren't closer than necessary.

"I think it was actually during our first date." Makoto answered, passing a bucket to the shorter student without turning to look at him; this way they could keep talking without raising suspicions from their respective boyfriends "I got my first mark when we went back to Haru's house after the outing."

"Can I ask what provoked Nanase-san?" Ai sounded a little fearful and the Iwatobian could understand why since it could sound inappropriate to ask about such a personal matter but, if there was anyone Makoto knew that he could trust with personal information, it would be Nitori; he had just that pure aura around him that even Nagisa couldn't beat.

"A girl who asked to marry me."

"What?" The duckling asked shocked but he kept his voice still low enough to not attract attention, his companion setting a bottle of floor cleaner inside the bucket he was hugging "But his jealousy wasn't completely unfounded then, someone else tried to flirt with you!"

"I would have thought the same way," Makoto started amusedly, closing the closet and walking towards the locker rooms with the breaststroke swimmer following right behind him with his bucket now hanging from his right hand "If it weren't for the fact this girl was six years old, at most."

"Wait, what?" Both youths stopped near a faucet, Makoto kneeled in front of it and motioned for the blue-eyed male to give him the bucket "But, why was a little girl asking for your hand, Tachibana-san?"

"She was trying to reach the water fountain in the park but she was too short, I didn't see anyone looking out for her so I helped her reach the fountain." The brunet explained while preparing the water "Then I asked her where her mother was and she told me she had come with her brother who went to buy ice-cream and had asked her to wait for him without moving so I told Haru we should stay with her until her brother came back and I started talking to her like I used to with my siblings. When her brother came back with the ice-cream for both of them, the little girl said I was really nice and wanted to be my wife someday if I waited for her to grow up."

"That's cute, young children tend to say things like that." The pair was done with the water and made their way to the locker rooms, cleaning first the hallway that had windows looking out to the pool, still careful to stay on the safe side with certain people "But then, Nanase-san took it that seriously?"

"Seriously enough to give me my first bite ever." Makoto chuckled though there was nervousness in his eyes "After that it happened… far too often, I'm ashamed to admit he gave me one because of Gou-chan and one because of Rei."

"But they are close friend of yours." Nitori sounded really surprised with the declaration and took a look out the window, Haruka and Rin were back to their laps for the moment so they were temporarily safe, Makoto started sweeping while Ai took the mop to start on the sections his elder cleaned.

"Yeah but that still doesn't mean I'm allowed to tell Gou-chan and her friend that they look cute or to tell Rei that he has beautiful legs." Makoto felt eyes on the back of his head and turned around to see sky blue eyes looking strangely at him, it was at that moment he realized how weird that last part sounded and couldn't help but blush "…I wanted to make it easier for him to pick a swimsuit… it worked."

"Well, I _did_ say Sousuke-senpai has a perfect body when I first saw him." Now it was Makoto's turn to look at his companion with a funny face, the duckling's cheeks turned pink at that "Yes, that also earned me a mark."

"Well but, I mean, I suppose that does mean Haru is a bit more possessive than Rin considering the nature of the incidents." The brunet said with a shrug and a reassuring smile but the shorter teen didn't return it.

"It's not a contest but I think they're around the same level." The blue-eyed swimmer confessed "Nanase-san may have gotten jealous over a little girl but Rin-senpai got jealous over a cat."

"…A cat?"

"Yeah, he takes care of a couple of stray cats in an old school building, I believe you've met Shiro and Kuro?"

"Oh, yes! I've met them!" Makoto couldn't forget the couple of cats Rin was looking after, he was the one who helped him get through to Kuro after all; the pair was too adorable for anyone to resist "Do you help him take care of them?"

"I used to but, since Shiro apparently fell in love with me, I can't help him out that often anymore." …OK, that didn't sound right.

"What do you mean by that, Nitori-kun?" Makoto asked with a raised eyebrow and it was Nitori's turn to chuckle.

"Whenever I go visit them, Shiro stays all the time by my side and doesn't leave me no matter how much Rin-senpai tells him to leave me alone." The questioned male answered "So I guess he got tired of seeing Shiro lying on my lap and licking my hands and rub his face all over my ankles because I can only go on certain days whenever he's in a particularly good mood… he still snarls at Shiro when he gets close to me though."

"So, no-one's safe of their wrath." Makoto joked, resuming his sweeping "Although, it's not all bad, I mean… I do feel protected, Haru isn't violent or too controlling or anything, I can still have my own life he just wants to reassure himself that he's still as important to me as I am to him and I think he's also making sure I don't get hurt by someone."

"I think that's right but I think it also gives Rin-senpai some sense of security that he has something to… show others that I'm with him and no-one else can attempt to take me away." Ai added in his own two cents, starting to mop the section Makoto was done sweeping "It's kind of nice in its own way, I mean, there _have _been instances where other guys and girls have tried to hit on me even if I don't like it and Rin-senpai is there to keep them away from me and make me feel safe."

"Me too, I'm always told I'm too nice even with people that don't deserve it and I have a hard time saying no so I am grateful when Haru is next to me in those situations; he can make anyone who doesn't know him walk away with just one look." Makoto stopped sweeping and focused solely on the breaststroke swimmer who stopped his own cleaning to focus on his companion as well "But whether it's with someone else or just the two of us, whenever I am with him I feel a sense of belonging and, in a weird way, I suppose his love bites give him that sense as well."

"To each other alone." The silver-haired teen said with a wide smile "Although, they do kinda hurt at times."

"Yeah, they do." Makoto snickered, walking up to the second-grader "Some ice helps though, can I see them again?"

"Sure, just let me…" Ai pulled down his turtleneck and let his elder take a closer look to his bruises. The green-eyed youth touched softly one of the hickeys trying not to hurt the younger swimmer, he leaned in closer and was able to see faintly the marks of Rin's sharp teeth around the love bite.

"Those teeth don't help your case but I think-"

"Ai!" "Makoto!"

As if they were touching fire, both teenagers jumped away from each other like lightning and turned to the threshold where they found a panting, dripping wet, very upset-looking Rin and Haruka looking at them as if they had been making out in there. Makoto and Ai stared at their respective boyfriends for a few seconds before turning to look at each other, a single thought crossing both their minds at the same time.

'_Oh, crap!'_

**Next Chapter: About hyper boyfriends...**


	9. About hyper boyfriends

**Fanfiction title:**About love and relationship stuff

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which the Free! Characters talk about their relationships and how similar or opposite they might be.

**Chapter summary: **Rei has been trying to keep up with Nagisa for over a year, it's time for him to teach a senior a lesson or two about how to handle his own firecracker.

**Chapter title:**About hyper boyfriends…

**Couples: **Reigisa/SouMomo.

**A/N: **I spent a lot of time planning how to write this chapter, at first I really thought I'd make it more like some previous ones where both couples shared their experiences but when I tried to think on where this episode would take place I instantly thought about the Crab Festival mentioned in a Drama CD and have Momo and Nagisa competing and start the chapter from there. Because the Festival takes place in October and I wrote a previous chapter in which I implied that Sousuke and Momotarou's relationship started in late August/early September, I knew it would have been hard to try to create some situations Sousuke could share so I decided to change things up a little and have Rei be the one who led this chapter.

Come to think about it though, I have yet to write a chapter from Sousuke's POV and neither one of the two upcoming chapters happens to be from his perspective so if anyone has an idea for a chapter in which we can get into Sousuke's head please feel free to share. I also need a chapter just for Nagisa's POV and one just for Ai's POV since their chapter together kind of had both of their perspectives together so, any idea for them I'm also willing to listen.

Without further ado, hope you enjoy it!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Free! Or anything related to the material.

**Reminders:**

**1\. - The couples I will use throughout the one-shots are: MakoHaruMako/Rintori/Reigisa/SouMomo and SeiGou.**

**2\. – The chapters will be taking place after the Nationals of second season and before graduation day for Rin, Sousuke, Makoto and Haruka; but I will jump back and forth through those months so don't think too much on what should happen first and what should happen next, it's not that important. The time the couples have been together and such will be mentioned in some chapters.**

**3\. - I want to point out that English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes you might find.**

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**Chapter 7:****About hyper boyfriends...**

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It was a mildly warm October night, soon the nights would grow cold and the light button-up he was wearing would no longer be acceptable for the weather. His favorite cardigans would likely be a better choice, he had some pieces in beautiful colors and his boyfriend always complimented him when he wore a certain blue one last autumn so maybe that would be the first-

"How do you do it, Ryugazaki?" Rei's musings were cut short when he heard a voice next to him call his name. The question came out of the blue and he honestly did not expect to be addressed by this person so suddenly since he was not a teen who particularly enjoyed talking.

"Pardon?" The second-grader turned to look at his fellow butterfly swimmer who didn't look back at him but rather kept his gaze fixed on the competition taking place in front of them.

"How do you do it?" Sousuke repeated, his arms were crossed in front of his chest and he was standing a couple of feet away from Rei just close enough to be heard over the voices of their cheering friends as well as the cries of pain from those participating in the festival's main activity.

"Could you be more specific, please, Sousuke-san?" Rei requested politely, hoping the older teen would look at him when talking to him, alas, Sousuke still refused to meet his eyes.

"You have been dating Hazuki for over a year, right?"

"One year, two months, t-" Sousuke finally turned to him but it was only to give him a look that told him to get to the point "_Ahem_, yes, that is correct."

"How have you been able to handle him for so long?" The taller youth's question now sounded much more grounded than it previously had but it still was kind of a weird question.

"Well, I believe my answer would be more helpful to you if you told me what in relation to him you're curious about." Sousuke's face looked annoyed but Rei wanted to give the best answer he could to his elder so he just waited for the reply to come.

"Look at him." The third-grader motioned to the blond and turned his gaze to the front, Rei followed his gaze and caught Nagisa attempting to catch a crab with his bare hands, alongside him were Momotarou, Rin and Haruka; all four of them trying to be the one who caught the most crabs in this little competition. Nagisa was smiling widely and daring his competitors to beat him, the first-grader responded to every tease but Rin and Haruka were too busy trying not to get their fingers caught by the animals' claws to pay attention to him "He hasn't stopped since we got to the festival and doesn't seem at all ready to be done any time soon."

"Well, that's just part of his personality." The blue-haired student answered easily "Momotarou-kun also has a lot of energy, he's been able to keep up with Nagisa-kun rather easily."

"That's exactly what I mean." Rei looked back at the taller male with a raised eyebrow, Sousuke had his teal eyes locked on him "They both have so much energy, they can tire everyone out and still keep going. How have you managed to keep up with him for so long without getting tired yourself?"

"Tired of Nagisa-kun?" The bespectacled teen looked at his boyfriend again for a couple of seconds, laughing away at his seniors' expense when both swimmers got their fingers caught by the crabs, Makoto and Nitori asking concernedly if they were ok over the laugh of the few spectators there were "I suppose there _have_ been times when I have considered the use of sedatives but I believe a pacifier in the form of a present is most sufficient."

"Have you ever thought about… breaking up with him?" The question caught the shorter boy off guard and couldn't hide the surprise from showing on his face "I don't mean to imply anything."

"Well, I can tell you in all honesty I have not considered terminating our relationship up to this day." Rei assured with pride before a thought occurred to him "Have _you_ thought about breaking up with Momotarou-kun?"

"No, but…" Sousuke stopped talking when they heard the crowd cheering as the winner was announced, Haruka had won the round and Rin didn't seem pleased but Nagisa and Momo didn't appear to care much as both came running up to their respective boyfriend, the redhead holding his left hand with his thumb pointing upwards and teary eyes.

"Sousuke-senpai!" The backstroke swimmer wailed showing his thumb to the third-grader "A crab got my thumb and it hurts!"

"I told you it wasn't going to be easy." Sousuke said with a sigh and a small smile while wrapping his right hand around Momo's thumb and giving it a squeeze, his big hand contrasting to the otter's smaller ones "The crabs must have been terrified of you though, consider that."

"I know but Nagisa-chi challenged me!" Momotarou pointed accusingly at the blond with his free hand. Nagisa currently had his arms wrapped around Rei's middle, his cheek against the taller swimmer's chest while he smiled innocently back to the Samezuka students "I had to accept!"

"It was fun, Momo-chan!" Nagisa declared without a sign of remorse, the penguin then turned to his boyfriend with a pout "I'm hungry, Rei-chan!"

"Me too!" Momo declared, freeing his thumb from Sousuke's grip and raising his arms in the air "I want some sticks!"

"Food does sound like a good idea." Makoto said walking up to them, Haruka, Rin and Aiichirou close behind "We could go buy something and try to find a place to eat where we can watch the fireworks."

"There should still be space a little closer to the river, past the temple; if we have someone save us a spot we will have an optimal view while enjoying our meal." Rei proposed readjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose now that Nagisa had let him go.

"Maybe you should look for a spot, Rei." Rin proposed, his previous upset expression gone by now "Can you go with him, Sou? We wouldn't want you getting lost twice in one night."

"Not funny, Rin." Sousuke retorted with a frown "But I'll go with Ryugazaki."

"Do you want me to come with you, Sousuke-senpai?" Ai asked to what the whale-shark shook his head.

"Considering the amount of food _these two_ consume, the more hands to carry, the better." Sousuke answered motioning to the little vacuums he knew Nagisa and Momotarou to be "We'll save a spot for everyone, call us if you can't find us."

"OK, if you're sure." Makoto said with a nod, moving to lead the group towards the food stands "Come on guys, we should hurry. We'll meet you later!"

"Nagisa-kun, don't waste your money on sweets!" Rei called after Nagisa who waved animatedly back at him. Once the group was out of sight, the butterfly let out a breath and spoke again "He's going to waste all his money on sweets."

"At least the rest will make sure to get some real food." The taller male shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly "Lead the way then, Ryugazaki."

"Very well. Follow me, Sousuke-san." Rei turned around and started making his way to the temple, if his experience from last year was anything to go by then they could still find a good place by the river but they shouldn't stall. As they walked through the mass of people enjoying the festival, Rei remembered their interrupted conversation "Sousuke-san?"

"Hmm?"

"What did you want to say earlier?" The third-grader turned to him with a raised eyebrow so Rei elaborated "When you asked me if I had thought about breaking up with Nagisa-kun."

"Oh." Sousuke's eyes lit up with realization, a contemplative frown finding a way to his face before he answered "It's not that I want to break up with Momotarou; it's hard for me to actually like someone to begin with but he did a lot to get me to care about him the way I do… We've been going out for a little less than two months and I think I may be slowing him down because he has so much energy and I just can't keep up with him. Did you ever feel that way with Hazuki?"

"Well, maybe at some point I was unsure about our compatibility but I don't think I am slowing him down." Rei replied, bringing a hand to his chin in thought "If anything, I think he's speeding me up."

"What do you mean?" Sousuke asked curiously. Rei looked up at the temple as they walked down the side of it, they should be nearing the last few stands and then they would reach that one spot that had become an important part of the Iwatobi Swim Club's life; they had first felt like a real team there and now they would be able to share it with their new friends.

"Well, my first time ever in a Karaoke bar was with Nagisa-kun."

"You know I have no interest in hearing about your sexual life, right?" It took Rei two seconds to understand what Sousuke meant but when he caught on with what had been said he lit up like a traffic light.

"My first time _going_ to a Karaoke bar, Sousuke-san!" The purple-eyed teen saw the smirk Sousuke gave him in reply and recomposed himself, clearing his throat in an attempt to sound unperturbed "Anyway, before I knew him I didn't dare to do a lot of things but thanks to him I joined the swimming club, I went into a Karaoke bar, I ran with a partner on the mornings, I tried new recipes and clothing. I did have a rather comfortable life before I met him but he's made me move at his pace since he first talked to me, it's hard to keep up with him but I can't imagine what my life would be like had he never pulled me into his game."

"You make it sound like a marathon but these last weeks have been like a sprint." Rei walked up the steps to the rock balcony, Sousuke by his side as he kept talking "The first dates we had before we became official were fun and this time has also been entertaining but every day I end up feeling exhausted and he still seems to want to do more."

"Has he complained about anything though?" The second-grader asked cocking his head to the side "Has Momotarou-kun given you any hint of being unsatisfied?"

"No but we _have_ been together for a relatively short period, I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before either he gets bored or I get overwhelmed." Sousuke admitted looking down as they reached the top of the balcony, not many people were there so they approached the fence and stood overlooking the multitude in case they saw their friends.

"Actually, I think you're starting to speed up yourself." The black-haired teen turned to his companion in a quick movement with a questioning look on his face and Rei couldn't help but chuckle at that look "I can say Nagisa-kun and I didn't have matching items until three months into the relationship."

"Yeah, I know it's weird but I just couldn't not accept this." Sousuke reached inside his shirt and pulled out his pendant: Half a silver ring attached to a necklace. His expression softened considerably when he looked down at it, the necklace long enough for him to be able to pull it in front of his chin but not past his nose.

"Did you think it was too soon to get something like that from Momotarou-kun?"

"At the time I only thought it was something that was just like him to do." The older teen answered placing the necklace safely back under his black shirt "He's impulsive and childish but he's also so affectionate and clingy so I just thought this present was very much like him and, when I saw his face as he explained to me why he got me that present I just had to accept it."

"He did look very hopeful when we told us about it." The blue-haired male commented with a kind smile "We all agreed you'd like it."

"You were right." Sousuke admitted "I suppose I'm just learning what it's like to have every weekend planned with a date outside rather than just staying in watching a movie or something."

"You'll get used to it, trust me." Rei assured with a nod "You'll build up your stamina, I learned that lesson after last Christmas Eve."

"What happened last Christmas Eve?" Sousuke asked with a sideways smile, as if already making fun of him but Rei didn't mind that expression and sighed once before answering.

"Nagisa-kun had last-minute shopping to do; he hadn't bought _any_ present and of course he begged me to go with him and help him buy everything for his family and friends. Presents for his three sisters, his parents, Haruka-senpai, Makoto-senpai, Gou-chan, Ama-chan-sensei, Coach Sasabe, Rin-san, Nitori-kun and for me and we had one day to get the right present for everyone." Rei took a breath and continued "We were at the mall at 8 am sharp and we had to be done shopping by 3:30 pm so we could have dinner with my family before going to Haruka-senpai's house for the party we were having among friends and the gift exchange."

"Did you make it?" The Samezuka student asked genuinely interested.

"Nagisa-kun spent an hour looking for my present, the last one he had to buy, while I waited for him at the food court and when he found me again -fifteen minutes past the planned time-, he hurriedly told me we had to keep shopping because he wanted to get something for my parents and my brother as well to get them to like him better even though my entire family was more than agreeable with our relationship by that point." The second-grader recounted with a shake of his head "So there we were, rushing to buy those three presents he insisted were _absolutely necessary_.We ran all over the mall, tried to get checked out as quickly as possible, went to have the 16 presents wrapped up and we still had to wait for the train. We boarded the train 20 minutes later, there were so many people in there we had to protect the presents with our bodies and then I accompanied him to his house to drop the presents, Nagisa-kun stayed to get ready for the dinner and I had to run all the way back home to get ready myself. Somehow, we were both seated with my family by 5:40; just ten minutes late."

"I can't believe you still went to the party after that." Sousuke said sounding mildly surprised and Rei could only give him a small smile.

"I can't believe Nagisa-kun lasted awake until 1 am." Rei looked down at his watch –Nagisa's Christmas present for him-; the fireworks wouldn't start for a few minutes still but he hoped his friends would be back soon "But, when I was still awake to make sure he had a blanket safely surrounding him so he wouldn't be cold, I realized I had finally managed to match his pace."

"You must have feel accomplished." Teal eyes moved to look up at the sky, it seemed the story had made the taller youth think about his situation "I suppose spending hours catching stag beetles or window-shopping at the mall or even spending an entire day hiking isn't really that bad."

"Don't give up so easily, Sousuke-san; you are ambitious and that is a quality that will help you out in this relationship if you just give it a little more time. Besides, with time, Momotarou-kun will also start making compromises for you and you'll be able to have dates more of your liking every other time."

"You're the expert." Sousuke chuckled, looking down when someone called him name. Rei soon also heard his name being called and looked down as well, finding his friends walking back, Momo and Nagisa waving animatedly with one hand while holding a plate of food each with the other, the rest of the pack carrying about three plates of food each. Rei couldn't help but find amusing the fact the young Mikoshiba was holding four crumbed crab sticks between the fingers of his waving hand, he did _not_ find amusing however the bag he could see hanging from Nagisa's arm, no doubt filled with cotton candy, caramel apples and the like but he already knew that was going to happen "I think I could give it a try, like you said, it's too soon to make a decision about this."

"You may feel unsure now and it can be overwhelming at first but all you have to do is ask yourself if this relationship is worth it." The younger swimmer said before the couple of firecrackers trotted up to him, the food on their plates moving precariously with every step.

"Rei-chan! I found some crab sushi for you!" Nagisa exclaimed, showing the plate he was carrying to his boyfriend and smiling proudly "But you have to share with me!"

"If that will get you to eat something other than sweets then take as many rolls as you want." Rei replied with a playful frown but still making sure to sound serious.

Purple eyes then turned to the male who had been previously holding a conversation with him; he was holding his own plate of food while his boyfriend tried to talk through a crab stick in his mouth. The rest of their friends joined them and filled their surrounding with amicable chatter as Sousuke tried to keep Momotarou from flipping over the plate in his hand but, when he noticed the kind, teal gaze the redhead was receiving, he knew the third grader considered his relationship to be worth at least a little more time. If they were anything like Nagisa and himself then there was nothing to worry about.


End file.
